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Kennedy Suspends Campaign, Endorses Trump

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By Lambert Strether of Corrente.

Have I mentioned that expected this year to be volatile? Here is Kennedy’s speech, live, which is on-going as of this writing [now finished].

UPDATE Hat tip to alert reader marym for the transcript.

I was going to put on my yellow waders and look at Kamala’s DNC speech — I had Sarah Palin’s 2008 acceptance speech all lined up for a genre comparison — but obviously this is more important.

Please consider this a live post as I can put more material together, and talk amongst yourselves.

P.S. Wowers, is Kennedy’s description of the horror that is the modern Democrat party. FAFO, and FO they did, with their ballot manipulation shenanigans.

* * *

I was reluctant to launch this post, because I did not hear — and there is no Closed Captioning on YouTube, hence no transcript — sentences as simple as this: “I am suspending my campaign. In Blue or Red States, vote for me. In swing states, I will take myself off the ballot” and “I hereby endorse Donald Trump for President.” The last part I did not hear. However, I just heard:

“Joining the Trump campaign will be a difficult sacrifice for my wife and our chldren.”

So here we are!

* * *

Here is the Kennedy clan’s reaction:

I disagree. Kennedy explained quite clearly in the beginning of his speech that today’s Democrat Party is not the Democrat Party of JFK or RFK. Alert reader Martin Oline summarized that portion of his speech, right at tbe beginning, as follows:

He says that Kamala Harris dropped out of the 2020 primary without a single vote and yet has been selected by the party to be the chosen candidate for 2024. By doing so they have abandoned democracy and embraced lawfare and manipulated the primary process, using the media to censor his campaign.

Kennedy also went into considerable detail about his difficulties getting on the ballot, and how the Democrats tried to prevent this at every turn (while praising his volunteers, who did indeed do an extra-ordinary job.

* * *

BBC was first out of the box on my RSS feed, so here they are: “RFK Jr suspends campaign to ‘throw support’ behind Trump“. A key point:

Before working to elect Trump, Mr Kennedy said he asked to have similar conversations with Ms Harris.

The Harris campaign reaction being “lol, no.”

* * *

Then FOX, “Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. suspends campaign, backs Trump for president“:

Kennedy said in Phoenix that the Democratic Party of “waged continual legal warfare [I heard this as “lawfare”] against both President Trump and myself,” and “ran a sham primary.”

“In an honest system, I believe I would have won the election,” he said.

Kennedy’s campaign is asking swing states to remove his name from the ballot because he does not want to be a “spoiler,” he said. He will remain on the ballot in states that he considers “red” or “blue,” he said. “If you live in a blue state, you can vote for me without harming or helping President Trump or or Vice President Harris,” Kennedy said. “In red states, the same will apply.”

Interestingly:

But the relationship between Kennedy and Trump started warming earlier this year, and the two spoke last month after the assassination attempt against Trump and met in person the following day.

Would be a little too much “All things work together for good” if Thomas Crooks brought Trump and Kennedy together… And Kennedy then fixed American’s food supply (which needs fixing). Now, Kennedy seemed to believe that Trump made some sort of commitment to him on that topic — which also means that the extremely attractive framing of “saving America’s children” fell into Trump’s lap, of all people, who knew — but I am hazy on what the commitment was. No doubt it will come up in coverage (or at the rally in Glendale, AZ later today).

* * *

“DNC unveils billboards dubbing Trump, Vance, RFK Jr. ‘weird as hell’” [The Hill]. Well, that’s clarifying. So much for “President of all the people” (which anybody over six-years-old knows was West Wing-style boilerplate). “I don’t know what’s weird about wanting to save children from chronic disease. Kamala, why do you think that’s weird?” The wonderful thing about Kennedy throwing his support to Trump to end childhood suffering is that it could give Trump, for once in his life, the moral high ground. It will be interesting to see how Trump handles that, since having the moral high ground will be a very new experience for him.

* * *

Pre-speech snark (94.9K followers, looks like a Democrat operative from the timeline):

Thelma: If brain worms mean you don’t commit genocide, I’m all for them (“\s,” in case any goon actually picks this up).

Working to unify all Americans (401.1K followers, “Author, Pastor, Activist, Storyteller”):

Pastor, eh?

Dude needs to get his knee seen to (768K Followers, “Pro-democracy conservatives Republicans fighting Trump & Trumpism”):

* * *

Shanahan before Kennedy’s announcement:

Set up a truth and reconcilation commission. Not only do you get to punt, it might even be a good idea.

* * *

Now CBS, “RFK Jr. endorses Trump and suspends presidential campaign.” Key point:

And he held out the distant possibility that if neither Trump nor Harris were able to win 270 electoral votes, tying 269 to 269, “I could conceivably still end up in the White House in a contingent election.”

Harris campaign emits strategist- and press-friendly boilerplate in reaction:

Jen O’Malley Dillon, the chair of Vice President Kamala Harris’ campaign, appealed to Kennedy’s supporters in a statement after his announcement Friday.

“For any American out there who is tired of Donald Trump and looking for a new way forward, ours is a campaign for you,” she said. “In order to deliver [what?] for working people and those who feel [are] left behind, we need a leader [sigh] who will fight for you, not just for themselves, and bring us together, not tear us apart. Vice President Harris wants to earn your support.”

Gonna have to pry “fight for” from their cold dead hands. Anyhow, if you want Kennedy’s voters, steal his issues, the way you stole Trump not taxing tips (not a good idea, but Kamala went ahead and stole it).

* * *

Polling:

“Trump, Harris campaigns weigh in on RFK Jr. suspending bid” [The Hill].

The Trump campaign released a memo from its pollster, Tony Fabrizio, positing that Trump would gain the majority of Kennedy’s supporters in a head-to-head race against Harris.

The memo cited campaign polling that found Trump drawing more than half of Kennedy’s supporters in Arizona, Nevada, North Carolina and Wisconsin, and a plurality of his supporters in Georgia, Michigan and Pennsylvania.

“So, when you hear or see the Harris team and/or the Democrats try and spin otherwise, now that the data clearly paints a different picture,” Fabrizio wrote in the memo. “This is good news for President Trump and his campaign – plain and simple.”

Well, the Trump campaign would do that; I will wait for the Old Guys to express their views, or for next week’s polling. If Kamala gets a low-to-no convention bounce, Kennedy’s well-timed announcement would be the reason.

“Rove: RFK Jr. endorsing Trump could have impact in Georgia, Arizona” [The Hill]. “Republican strategist Karl Rove suggested Wednesday that independent candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. endorsing former President Trump could help the GOP nominee in Georgia and Arizona, two key swing states in November. ‘My gut tells me it probably helps Donald Trump, because the people who were for him because he was a Kennedy, I think they began leaving after Joe Biden pulled out on the 21st, so a small amount of help,’ Rove told Fox News in an interview. ‘But as you know, in a race like this, think about it. Did he have 10,000 followers in Georgia? Did he have 11,000 followers in Arizona? And then how did they split? It’s probably not this positive, but it could have an impact,’ he added.” • If the campaigns are fighting over 100,000 voters (a purely notional figure) then 10,000 would have a material impact.

“RFK Jr. endorses Trump as he suspends presidential campaign” [CNN]. “There is a presumption among Trump’s team and his allies that conservative-leaning mothers — a demographic the Republican nominee has struggled to win over — could also be swayed. Women were more likely to support Kennedy than men, according to a recent Pew Research Center survey, though other polls haven’t shown a meaningful difference.” But–

“RFK Jr.’s supporters could still alter a tight presidential race. Trump is banking on it” [CNN]. “At the Republican National Convention last month, Trump co-campaign manager Chris LaCivita told a room full of reporters that their internal polling predicted Kennedy siphoned slightly more votes from Democrats in Michigan and Wisconsin but ‘much more from us’ in Pennsylvania, whose 19 Electoral College votes are one of this year’s top prizes and could determine the election. Asked why, LaCivita responded, ‘I don’t know. I haven’t figured it out yet.'” • Hmm.

* * *

Kennedy would be in what role?

“Trump Jr. says it would be good to have RFK Jr. at an agency to ‘blow it up’” [The Hill] From August 21 (but after Trump and Kennedy had opened discussions, note well). “Donald Trump Jr., former President Trump’s son, told conservative radio host Glenn Beck that he’s in favor of having independent presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. take a position in a new Trump administration so he can take a government agency and ‘blow it up.’ ‘I loved the idea, love the idea of giving him some sort of role in some sort of major three-letter entity or whatever it may be and let him blow it up,’ Trump said Wednesday on ‘The Glenn Beck Program.'” • I can think of several TLAs that need blowing up badly — and have yet to see reporting on Trump’s actual offer to Kennedy. I mean, there was a deal, right?

“New in SpyWeek: RFK Jr. as Trump’s CIA Chief?” [SpyTalk]. “Former Gen. Michael Flynn, who briefly served as Trump’s national security advisor and became a much-beloved figure in the QAnon conspiracy community, also said he liked the idea. ‘Make him CIA director, and we can finally learn exactly who killed his uncle, his dad, MLK Jr., Malcolm X, etc.,’ Flynn wrote in a post on X. No word on this from RFK Jr.’s campaign manager (and daughter-in-law), Amaryllis Fox, who did work at the CIA and published a disputed memoir of her time there. Lately, she’s been busy posting the history of CIA covert action on X.” • I think not, unless Kennedy hires a personal food taster and is very careful about the ventilation in his office. (This also doesn’t jibe with Kennedy’s health/food/children agenda.)

“Election Live Updates: Robert F. Kennedy Jr. Suspends Campaign and Endorses Trump” [New York Times]. One hour ago: “Trump, taking questions from reporters at a restaurant in Las Vegas, declined to say whether he would offer Kennedy a role in his administration if he is elected in November. He called Kennedy ‘beloved.'” Interesting, assuming the Times is reporting accurately. But two hours ago: ‘”With President Trump’s backing,’ Kennedy said, ‘I’m going to staff these agencies with honest scientists.’ He is implying that Trump would have him in such a role if Trump wins the White House. ‘We’re going to reform the entire food system,’ he said.” • “Staff” in what role? This seems like an awfully important detail to leave so fuzzy.

“RFK Jr. says he is suspending presidential campaign to help Trump” [Axios]. “Trump, who Kennedy said Friday has asked him to ‘enlist’ in his administration, is hosting a rally later in Arizona. He has teased that there will be a ‘special guest’ at the rally.” • “Enlist”? What does that mean? Will the campaigns be integrated? Offices within the Executive Branch are within Trump’s gift. So which office? What is the deal?

UPDATE I have scanned the transcript. This is closest I can come: “If President Trump is elected and honors his word, the vast burden of chronic disease that now demoralizes and bankrupts, the country will disappear.” So we know Trump gave his word — but about what? Not clear. If some kind reader would confirm or disconfirm me in this view, that would be great.

* * *

Our democracy:

“Democratic dynasty heir RFK endorses Republican Trump” [New York Post].”‘When a predictably bungled debate performance precipitated the palace coup against President Biden, the same shadowy DNC operatives appointed his successor, also without an election, they installed a candidate who was so unpopular with voters that she dropped out in 2020 without winning a single delegate,’ he said.” • And he was right.

* * *

“RFK Jr. endorses Trump ahead of announcement dropping out of presidential election” [The Federalist]. “”I want to thank Bobby, that was very nice,’ Trump said. ‘That’s big. He’s a great guy, respected by everybody.'” • Queens boy makes good!

* * *

Time for me to sign off. Some quick reactions–

1) I don’t think Kennedy’s “enlistment” will swing many of voters, but it wouldn’t take many, were they located in the right swing states (“the future is not here, and it is not evenly distributed.” That’s why elections are so fascinating).

2) I do think that Kennedy’s wish to solve America’s child health crisis by fixing food has many advantages. First, it makes all of Kamala’s proposals look like smallball: focus-grouped, tired, and weak (as they indeed are). Second, for once in his life, Trump would have the moral ascendancy (“the children!”). Useful in debate! Third, the proposal needs to be fleshed out and made concrete but with a small-ish attack surface (but no woo woo, although if Big Ag fights it, so much the better). Finally, if Trump really puts his weight behind this big policy idea, it changes the complexion of the race completely, not least because it could give his messaging the focus it has hitherto lacked.

3) For Trump’s sake, I sure hope the campaign staff was on-board with this from the beginning, and that this didn’t come as a shock to them. That they had polling figures to hand argues that they were not surprised.

4) The issue of Kennedy’s position in the executive branch is fuzzy and it should be fixed. I suppose if Kennedy says “Donald and I have a deal, and I’m sure he’ll stick to it” that might be enough. But maybe not. Depends on what Kennedy is in Trump’s mind: Casino to be raped and pillage, or fine old building to be quietly upgraded and maintained…

5) Perhaps I’m not being cynical enough — happens all the time, sigh — but to me Kennedy’s sincerity was evident (although, like courage, the virtue of sincerity is only virtuous depending on the use to which it is put). That is a major asset for the Trump campaign, Trump not being known for his sincerity.

6) Adding, after reading the comments, I should have asked who Kennedy’s food advisors are. If they’re lightweights, or gurus, or woo woo, all bets are off (thinking here of the lunatics that ran Trump’s “election theft” operation as well, who not only butchered the job, but made legitimate complaints harder to raise).

Have I mentioned that this year was going to be volatile?

UPDATE Long-time readers will remember that in 2016 — which long-time readers will also remember I called correctly — I took to prefacing many of my remarks with “I don’t love Trump” (“Trump looked out the window and said ‘It’s raining,’ which it was.” “You must love Trump!”). I don’t really want to waste the characters again, but if I must, I must: “I don’t love Trump.” Today’s readers will also recall that I don’t have a dog in this fight: Liberal Democrats shot my dog in 2016; and then in 2020, they shot my dog again and gave the body a kick to make sure. My revealed enthusiasms, then and now, were and are for the technical aspects of the campaigns; if Susie Wiles (or David Plouffe) does something clever, that’s how I’m going to call it. That has nothing whatever to do with giving my vote to either campaign. It also has little to do with an expectation that either campaign will deliver on anything. The sole point at issue is the effect on election day. Policy is a whole other thing (on which I do have strong views).

A sports analogy may help. I am Celtics fan of the Bird era (Bird is a master trash-talker, among other things). That doesn’t, and shouldn’t, prevent me from saying that the Detroit Pistons were a worthy rival. It also doesn’t mean that I think Bill Laimbeer is a nice guy, a prince among men. He wasn’t! I don’t love Laimbeer!

Generally, as I have indicated here, I have “lashed myself to the mast” so as to recognize the siren blandishments of the partisans, without being moved by them. Occasionally and idiosyncratically, I am moved. I am, at this point, pretty cynical realistic, but it’s also true that politicians are in some ways like all us dull normals: They occasionally try to do the right thing, especially when it serves their interests, even when the system and all their default incentives work against their humanity. I think this tendency makes me a better barometer of the zeitgeist, not a worse one.

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About Lambert Strether

Readers, I have had a correspondent characterize my views as realistic cynical. Let me briefly explain them. I believe in universal programs that provide concrete material benefits, especially to the working class. Medicare for All is the prime example, but tuition-free college and a Post Office Bank also fall under this heading. So do a Jobs Guarantee and a Debt Jubilee. Clearly, neither liberal Democrats nor conservative Republicans can deliver on such programs, because the two are different flavors of neoliberalism (“Because markets”). I don’t much care about the “ism” that delivers the benefits, although whichever one does have to put common humanity first, as opposed to markets. Could be a second FDR saving capitalism, democratic socialism leashing and collaring it, or communism razing it. I don’t much care, as long as the benefits are delivered. To me, the key issue — and this is why Medicare for All is always first with me — is the tens of thousands of excess “deaths from despair,” as described by the Case-Deaton study, and other recent studies. That enormous body count makes Medicare for All, at the very least, a moral and strategic imperative. And that level of suffering and organic damage makes the concerns of identity politics — even the worthy fight to help the refugees Bush, Obama, and Clinton’s wars created — bright shiny objects by comparison. Hence my frustration with the news flow — currently in my view the swirling intersection of two, separate Shock Doctrine campaigns, one by the Administration, and the other by out-of-power liberals and their allies in the State and in the press — a news flow that constantly forces me to focus on matters that I regard as of secondary importance to the excess deaths. What kind of political economy is it that halts or even reverses the increases in life expectancy that civilized societies have achieved? I am also very hopeful that the continuing destruction of both party establishments will open the space for voices supporting programs similar to those I have listed; let’s call such voices “the left.” Volatility creates opportunity, especially if the Democrat establishment, which puts markets first and opposes all such programs, isn’t allowed to get back into the saddle. Eyes on the prize! I love the tactical level, and secretly love even the horse race, since I’ve been blogging about it daily for fourteen years, but everything I write has this perspective at the back of it.

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295 comments

  1. George

    Trump is turning out to be the greatest unifier in modern history.

    Blacks, cowboys, women, Latinos, white nationalists, all are in common disdain of the DemoWhigs.

    1. tawal

      I see this as a chess move for democrats. I think Kennedy takes more votes from them than Trump, if Kennedy stays in the race

      1. John k

        Hard to say. But which votes? Where? That was and is the point.
        Plus, what does a big name endorsement do overall? Might a marginal voter think more of trump simply because he’s successfully ’reaching Across the aisle’? Or, might it confuse a voter sufficiently that one that was leaning dem stays home?

  2. Samuel Conner

    I read somewhere that KDH’s address last night was the most important speech of her life. I couldn’t bring myself to listen to it, so I have no idea whether it was good, bad or indifferent, but it would not surprise me if it is significantly upstaged by RFK’s speech today. I’m tempted to suspect that the timing is intentional, to contend for the attention of the news media in the immediate aftermath of the DNC.

    The speech itself is IMO in many places superb. The bill of goods against the D party is, as Lambert put it, “Persuasive, eloquent, and has the great merit of being true.” The justification for his decision to withdraw from swing states (to not function as a spoiler) but remain on the ballot in deep blue/red states, is plausible.

    The closing arguments, where he wraps up the “chronic disease epidemic, especially among the young”, concerns that are the focus of the later parts of the speech with an appeal for national unity to solve a national problem, are in places IMO very beautiful.

    I wonder whether he could head FDA in a notional 2nd DJT administration.

    2. Samuel Conner

      There was a bit of DJT-ian overspeak in the part where, IIRC, he promised that after four years of the policies he wants to implement, US would be a healthy nation (hmm; “Make America Healthy Again” might be a better slogan than MAGA. And it invites consideration of the ways our economy sickens us). Even assuming he could radically restrict the production and distribution of ultra-processed foods and radically reduce environmental contamination with industrial, agricultural, and medical chemicals, there would still be a massive disease burden in consequence of prior exposures.

      I suppose that political speech is not a great context for realistic promises and subtle distinctions. Still, it’s good that he put the issues in the spotlight. I tremble a little at the thought of what DJT himself may do with these issues if he speaks about them. Perhaps it would be better to leave them to RFK, Jr.

      1. Amfortas the Hippie

        hell, i’d suggest a radical move…put him in charge of both FDA and USDA…since the two “industries” are so incestuously involved in making america sick and obese.

        and, while im thinkin about it…depending on how much hugging he gets from trump, couldnt this be seen as sort of nixing a lot of the “OMG, Fashism!!!” nonsense?
        or is that term now so malleable that anybody They dont like can fit into it?
        (the current Lefty Pope, perhaps?)

      2. Lambert Strether Post author

        > There was a bit of DJT-ian overspeak in the part where, IIRC, he promised that after four years of the policies he wants to implement, US would be a healthy nation

        I remember that. I am still unable to determine from what position of authority he will do that. Naturally, it’s not being reported (though to be fair, my mind wandered a bit during the food part, even though I think raising that issue is really interesting).

            1. Phenix

              I have been following RFK Jr for years. I mention his podcast a lot. I’ve listened to dozens of them. I will try to dig up the quotes but he has previously stated that he wants to run HHS…of course he wanted to run everything but that was not in the cards.

    3. Carolinian

      Apparently Beyonce much less Taylor Swift didn’t show.

      Now is the time for the Trumpies to define the elusive Kamala–if they can. Will RFK be their poison arrow?

        1. Ben Panga

          If it were me, I’d be dropping the “she’s a Marxist” rubbish and playing up 1. She’s a weak idiot who knows nothing 2. She’s an empty shell, controlled and directed by “evil people” behind her.

          “Who is Kamala really? What does she stand for? Does she even know?”

          And of course keep hammering inflation etc

          1. Lambert Strether Post author

            > “Who is Kamala really? What does she stand for? Does she even know?”

            That is exactly where I was going, but given the press of events I didn’t have time to write it up; my formulatiom was “She doesn’t know who she is. Of course, that could be very useful to people who do kmow who they are, and know exactly what they want, like billionaire Democrat donors.

            1. flora

              Tucker and guest Jason Whitlock watched her speech. This is the last 10 minutes of their responses. utube.

              Tucker Carlson Reacts to Kamala Harris’s DNC Speech (with Special Guest Jason Whitlock)

              https://youtu.be/ZXql7J3ZSJc?t=2194

              (also, thanks for the link to RFK Jr’s speech)

    4. chris

      I can’t imagine RFK jr. getting through a senate confirmation regardless of who is in the White House. What positions are there that don’t require confirmation hearings? Could he be Trump’s next “COVID Czar”?

      1. Amfortas the Hippie

        if they kill c-span before then, well know we’re frelled and it’s time to go to ground.

        1. Bsn

          I’m really upset with CSPN!!!!! They want me to disable add blockers to watch. Adds on CSPAN!!! I’d better stop.

      2. Lambert Strether Post author

        > I can’t imagine RFK jr. getting through a senate confirmation

        Good point. But worth a shot.* Let them try and stop him. Other possibilities include making him “Acting” head or whatever, along with, say, a confirmation slot at OMB (although it occurs to me that the Heritage types are, if anything, more likely to knife him than the Democrats).

        * Indeed, a true Machiavellian would promise something that was within his gift, and then blame others for failure to deliver (but wait. Trump’s not a Democrat). In any case, I think RFK grew up hearing about this sort of thing at the dinner table….

  3. Tertium Squid

    Trump’s not very confident right now or he wouldn’t have promised RFK a cabinet spot.

    1. hk

      The talk that RFK Jr might be the attorney general or FDA admin (which, btw, is not a cabinet spot) in a second Trump admin (heck, even the VP at one time) has been going on for a long time.

    2. Christopher Smith

      It a weird thing called building a coalition. Compare with the Dems doing their best to cheese-off half of the country.

    3. Lambert Strether Post author

      > Trump’s not very confident right now or he wouldn’t have promised RFK a cabinet spot.

      Wrong on two counts:

      1) Nobody should be confident. As of today, this election is poised on a knife edge

      2) So far as I can determine from the reporting, and in the absence of a transcript (I don’t have time to listen to the video again), Trump has not offered Kennedy a position. Do consider reading the post, and if you know differenntly, please leave the evidence in response.

      1. Tertium Squid

        Read your post:

        “Before working to elect Trump, Mr Kennedy said he asked to have similar conversations with Ms Harris.

        The Harris campaign reaction being “lol, no.”

        What on earth did he want to say to his Democrat opponent? Did he not see the writing on the wall and was seeing which side would give the better deal? Got a better one from the Republicans, because apparently Democrats are less desperate at the moment.

        I assume that Kennedy would have to have some strong inducements to be Trump’s regulation patsy, and so do you because you repeatedly ask what their deal was. Of course there’s a deal, and I doubt a Kennedy would settle for less than cabinet level.

        (BTW The BBC article linked to the quote doesn’t appear have it, either the story was edited or it’s in a different story.)

    4. jonboinAR

      Trump has the reputation, which he’s cultured, of making the deal he needs to make at any given time. This appears to be a prototypical case of that. IOW, might be less panic and more of his normal way of doing business.

      (Of course, I say this assuming there IS a quid pro quo here, which I don’t know.)

  4. Socal Rhino

    He emphasized free speech/no censorship, Ukraine war, and chronic disease as his campaign issues. Briefly said Trump was pro free speech, had promised to immediately start negotiations with Russia to end the war, then spoke at length about chronic disease, corruption in health agencies, big pharma and big ag, and the drag disease has on our economy. Will campaign for Trump with understanding that he and Trump will openly disagree where they differ, and with Trump (and family, and donor) promises to make American health a top priority. Closed with the appeal to love our children more than we hate each other.

    That seems like a pretty good pitch to undecided voters in swing states.

    1. Lambert Strether Post author

      I should have said this in the post:

      Kennedy actually mentioned the “Censorship Industrial Complex.” Whoever coined that phrase — I think Taibbi, but maybe Shellenberger? — has the right to preen.

  5. Lunker Walleye

    I listened to part of the speech but didn’t hear that he will endorse Trump. Completely agree with him about how much the D’s have changed. He says so many things I agree with, but alas, key things that I do not.

  6. Stephen V

    I get captions on YT but I stream it through Roku. Are they device dependent? That is lousy.
    Ah, It’s BECAUSE IT’S LIVE methinks.. Onward!

    1. hk

      I think it depends on the source. The (formerly) live feed from PBS is not captioned. I notice that the Fox clip is captioned. I wonder if it’s Youtube that’s doing this (I thought this was done using AI by YT itself) and, if so, if it takes time (i.e. only completed ocntents get captioned.)

    1. Lambert Strether Post author

      Thank you marym. I thought I was outta here–

      “Just when i thought i was out, they pull me back in! ”

      Let me quickly scan to see if the detail of what position Kennedy would take is there. UPDATE in the post. It’s not.

    2. John Anthony La Pietra

      I’ve gone back and forth to the C-SPAN link, and back and forth through it, and I must be blind because I don’t see and can’t find anything about a transcript.

      Could someone *P*L*E*A*S*E* tell me where it is? Or do we have to be logged in to C-SPAN to get a link to a transcript, as is required “to save programs” according to the ribbon-like icon next to the scissors?

        1. John Anthony La Pietra

          Thank you very much for letting me know I wasn’t going crazy! (Though the transcript on that one being gone while the one from a month ago is still there could make me just a little foily. Ah, well, maybe they figure this one’s drawing a lot of video purchases, so they don’t want a transcript to cut into the business. . . .)

          It’s good to be only a day or two behind on my NC round-up. I was a few months behind for a while there, and pretty much had to cut back to Links and Water Coolers only to catch up without losing the thread of events entirely.

  8. lyman alpha blob

    Good for RFK. So sick of the Democrat party screwing over their own insufficiently “centrist” (aka Republican) candidates only to have the abused turn around and endorse those who knifed them in the back.

    They Democrats deserve this middle finger from RFK, and if they do lose in November, they’ll have RFK to thank for it. They’ll still blame racists and Russians, but the Blue Cloistered Cult are the only ones who’ll buy that tired line.

    1. ambrit

      Ah yes, the “Blue Cloistered Cult’s Greatest Hits.”
      “Don’t Fear the Reapers” with drone accompaniment.
      “Dominance and Submission”
      “Red and the Blue.”
      “Cities on Flame, Let’s Rock and Roll”
      “Careers of Evil”
      “Burning for You” featuring the Ukraine Military Veterans Quadriplegic Choir.
      “Godzilla…versus Mothra.”
      “OD’d on Democracy Itself”
      They predicted today’s political style in their 1974 album appropriately named “Secret Treaties.”

  9. JBird4049

    I am surprised, but not shocked, that RFK jr. has given his support to Donald Trump as the Democratic Party as a broad based party for the poor, working, and middle classes is just gone. It is corporatist-security-professional and managerial-state party

    I listened to Kamala Harris’ acceptance speech via Matt Taibbi’s and Walter Kirn’s America This Week; it was not Harris’ usual word salad, but it was audio meringue. Feel good buzz words and Americanisms, but nothing solid, no concrete proposals except indirectly on stopping the Bad People, a complete and deliberate ignoring of the accelerating economic and social collapse of the United States of America.

    As with the dead Gazan children, just deny reality and fabricate their own reality, Madison Avenue style with bonus Deep State warring against dis- and mis- information. But reality always win, eventually, and the harder they try, the greater the destructive rebound will be.

    Somehow, the Democratic Party made JFK and now Donald Trump attractive to me and I like neither candidate especially Trump; the open corruption, the perversion of the legal system, the worshiping of financial wealth, the unending fear and warmongering is being celebrated all while ignoring the poverty keeps increasing, all this has made want to end this cancer by almost any means needed.

  10. Carolinian

    I think Trump’s and now Kennedy’s “Kamala coup” theme is a good one and, as Lambert says, has the virtue of being true. She may “love” Joe but also, according to one account, threatened him with the 25th amendment or helped others to do so. After all those others couldn’t have made the threat unless she agreed since the VP is part of the process.

    In 2020 Tulsi showed that Kamala “can’t handle the truth” and carpet bombing the public with propaganda isn’t going to help unless the candidate’s own skills reassure the public. Being dismissive with a “lol” isn’t going to cut it. The way for the Trump people to defeat Kamala’s bs is to dial back their own and defeat her with the truth.

    1. albrt

      My only concern about threatening Biden with the 25th amendment is that they should have actually done it instead of just threatening. But as those of us dealing with aged parents know, any step in the right direction is a step in the right direction.

      I am truly at a loss why anyone would think that forcing Biden out of the race was a bad idea, or that the vice-president stepping in for the president is wrong. A game-show insta-primary would have set a precedent that would have made future primaries even easier to manipulate. And of course Harris is awful, but so is everybody else who could conceivably have been nominated.

      1. hk

        I think keeping the president in office while he’s being forced to abandon campaign via irregular means and false pretenses is the big problem. It’s a combination of blatant lying to the American people and mudding up responsibility for what’s going on. A particularly deadly combination at times like the present. 25th should have been invoked and Harris should already be the first woman president, with all the attendant powers and responsibilities. That she is not already shows that she’s a tool, a prop for whoever that’s doing the actual governing now (almost certainly not biden.). Further, this also indicates the cynical calculation turning the sitting vice president under an incapacitated president into someone that has nothing to do with the current administration while enjoying all the resources of the incumbency–at least superficially. This strikes me as a low con to me, by whoever’s running this scam. If we fall for this as a nation, perhaps we don’t deserve to be a sovereign people or country.

    2. Lambert Strether Post author

      > She may “love” Joe

      The crazy thing is this: The hard part about taking the keys away from an elder is that you do love them. But the Inner Party — Pelosi, Schumer, the Obamas, the Clintons, maybe Jeffries — were fine with letting Biden run the country. Therefore, his cognitive decline wasn’t at the top of their list. Their concern was that the perception of decline would lose them the election. And so they threw him under the bus and installed Kamala (with a speed and precision they don’t seem able to muster when where the public good is concerned).

      So they rode good old Joe ’til he was ready for the glue factory, then shoved him down the chute into the rendering pit. Seems like a strange kind of love, but who am I to disagree with so many?

  11. flora

    Thanks for this post.
    What can I, a 2016 big Bernie supporter say?
    Only this, on a completely personal ‘feeling’ assessment:
    I get the impression that KH would claw out my eyeballs to get ahead in her career.
    I never get that feeling from T.
    But that’s just me.

    1. hk

      What’s worse is that she’ll do it with a cackle and full of joy. (I’m obviously being facetious, but I get the impression that that is also really part of her character.) Trump is a jerk, but I don’t think he’s quite that cruel and sociopathic (because he doesn’t think he’s doing the right thing and that justifies everything he does).

      1. hk

        To her credit, H Clinton was quite honest about her power grubbing and whom she held in contempt. Not so with this crowd. I don’t mean just KH, but the entire machinery around her, run by Emmanuel Goldstein, the Big Brother, or whoever, for all I know.

      2. Big River Bandido

        I certainly did. That was partly why I wrote in Bernie Sanders in the 2016 general election.

    3. Carolinian

      Movie wise think All About Eve–the understudy schemes for principle Bette Davis’ role and even her man.

          1. ambrit

            Now you have me wondering who George Sanders is playing in the “real life” political drama unfolding today.

    4. aleph_0

      How is this not cope? Trump does outdoor rallies because he never paid venues in 2016, and I know a couple of good small businesses go out of business because he seems to make a rule to not to pay invoices.

      I mean, I desperately want someone to like here, but there isn’t anyone.

      1. Carolinian

        If Trump wins we get four more years of Trump. If Harris wins we get an array of behind the scenes forces while barely knowing what they are.

        I’d say confidence wise it’s the Harris insta-campaign that is worried or they wouldn’t be making such an over the top hard sell. When sales people are too pushy people become suspicious. It’s why the lawfare actually helped Trump.

        1. aleph_0

          I mean it’s a toss-up election so both R&D seem desperate to me.

          Four more years of Trump is four more years of backroom people making backroom deals, too. I don’t get why people think otherwise. If he had an ideology separate from the R backrooms, he sure doesn’t have the people to staff it. Nor have I seen him take steps to build it.

          I mean, Brett McGurk and Victoria Nuland worked for R&D admins, including Trump’s. Again, I can’t see it as anything but cope. Just like the people who thought Kamala would somehow be different on foreign policy.

          1. flora

            Maybe it’s Bill C.’s 1991-2 campaign point: “It’s the economy, stupid.” Really. Am I better off now than I was 4 years ago?

            2. Henry Moon Pie

              I wish we could change that question to, “Are we better off than we were four years ago?”

          2. Katniss Everdeen

            Four more years of Trump is four more years of backroom people making backroom deals…

            SERIOUSLY???

            If biden’s ouster by obama, pelosi et al. after winning the “primary” and the installation of harris without a single vote being cast for her is not a “backroom deal” in your opinion, then you have no idea what a “backroom deal” is.

            Sorry, not sorry. WTF are you talking about. I don’t think you’d know a “backroom deal” if it slapped you in the face… because it just did.

            1. jonboinAR

              I don’t think he’s claiming Kamala isn’t an obvious pure install, just that Trump isn’t much more likely to be interested in actually running or influencing much than she is. I kind of find myself agreeing with that, just from his previous administration. He hasn’t shown any particular diligence with regards to policy, I don’t think.

          4. Lambert Strether Post author

            > Four more years of Trump is four more years of backroom people making backroom deal

            My dude, have you been paying attention? Backroom people making backroom deals is how Kamala got coronated. Kennedy is disgusted by that, and he’s right.

            1. aleph_0

              I have. They did. I agree. A backroom deal put Biden in in 2020, and a backroom deal took him out of 2024. Couldn’t have happened to a nicer guy, imo.

              I don’t think it invalidates the rest of the point I made that this is still cope and unseriousness. I mean, RFK offered the Trump campaign an endorsement for a job in his admin. How’s that not the same kind of backroom deal he’s railing against?

              I don’t have a horse in the race, particularly. I am not voting for pres in 2024, just to put my marker down, if that helps.

              1. flora

                The rest of the analogue point you claim to make is entirely nonsensical to the larger point you aim to make, imo.

              2. Pat

                A backroom conspiracy got Trump in the running in 2016, but since he wasn’t really part of the deal/conspiracy he 1.) won and 2.) didn’t answer to that backroom. And he has been under attack ever since. And Trump is remarkably straightforward about deal making compared to the figures in the shadows behind Biden and Harris.

                On my part since the shadowy backroom cabal behind Biden and now the deeply undemocratic Kamala Harris is hell bent on World War, there is no comparison. Defeating and in time finding a way to burn them to the ground and salting the earth after is very serious.

              3. psylocyber

                I think he’s talking about the people he surrounded himself with. He didn’t drain the swamp, he just swirled it around a little bit. And even tho’ a lot of his first reactions were right, he backed off a lot of them.

                For example 1)China lab leak, 2)De-fund WHO 3)hydroxychloroquine, 4)De-fund/Get out of NATO. Then there’s the nepotism and the fact that for an “America First” President, he sucked more Israeli #^%k than Hillary.

                I will still vote for him over KH, at least he is an honest liar. But he is neither great, nor horrible. I don’t understand why people can only see one or the other, when he is neither.

          5. jonboinAR

            >>>>>>>>>>
            “I mean, Brett McGurk and Victoria Nuland worked for R&D admins, including Trump’s. Again, I can’t see it as anything but cope” (that is, seeing Trump as somehow independently minded).
            <<<<<<<<<<<

            Yeah, I mostly have to agree.

        2. hk

          TBH, I don’t know. When Trump got elected, I didn’t expect to see John Bolton as the Nat’l Sec Advisor, for however short a time.

      2. Yves Smith

        If this is not straw manning, I don’t know what is.

        1. By all accounts, RFK, Jr. gave a good speech. He was particularly on point in describing the Dems’ dirty political tricks, which any Sanders supporter will have seen operate too.

        2. RFK, Jr. does have some followers and some money. So his endorsement of and support of Trump will help him. Enough to make a difference or dent the Kamala-gasm? Who knows?’

        You also Made Shit Up by trying to depict only Team Trump as engaging in back room trading, when the Dems have been doing that more often and even flagrantly.

        It seems that your standard is if someone is not consistently bashing Trump or consistently touting Team D, they are backing Trump. That’s logically bogus and insulting.

    5. Retired Carpenter

      re: “I get the impression that KH would claw out my eyeballs to get ahead in her career”
      She did become Willie Brown’s girlfriend and he furthered her “career”…
      There used to be a name for this kind of behavior. Damned if I can remember it.
      Retired Carpenter

  13. pmc

    They’re all controlled by AIPAC. It will be another Green vote for me. For everyone else who doesn’t care about genocide, have at it

    1. Cat Burglar

      Voting for Stein is not a successful short-term tactic, but it is a good tactic in the longer term, if you want social democratic anti-imperialist policies. Stein votes in solid red or blue states will form an exact measure of the number of people who seriously want those policies and won’t settle for the decaying orbit of the status quo.

      You get moralism when you bring this up to Dems. To get that out of the way, I bring up the genocide, and the repeated mass murder policies that our war criminal Democrat Presidents have all supported during this century. “You say I am going to bring Trump to power — but you are actually advocating and voting for a mass murderer. You’re in fact supporting it, and telling me I should, too.” About then, they usually back down on the moralism (though some try to change the subject to identity politics), and then you can get them to really admit to the political calculations behind their preference.

      That’s the point at which you can really address what issues are important to them and make your case of really meeting the needs of most people in the country. You may not convince them, but you will put them into an open-minded state, considering their political commitments as subject to a decision about their interests — and that is also a long-term tactic to bring them around. You also won’t have to suffer any more moral-panic virtue signalling.

      1. Martin Oline

        What you write is correct. I have apologized to my grandchildren (who are in college) for the mess this country is in. I truly feel guilty for the many times I have had the wool pulled over my eyes. Even though it is likely this will be the last presidential vote I will ever take part in, I will proudly cast my ballot for Ms. Stein. Hopefully it will help create an alternative path for other generations. It will be my way of paying forward to children who deserve a better future.

    2. JerryDenim

      I 100% respect your choice and admire your conviction. However Trump seems uniquely bad enough to warrant reconsidering the consequences of your protest vote if you happen to live in a swing state. I do not and will probably vote Stein myself.

      1. Orphan

        >>However Trump seems uniquely bad enough to warrant reconsidering the consequences of your protest vote if you happen to live in a swing state.

        North Carolina voter here. I would argue the opposite. When a party completely abandons the values you personally honor, the strongest message gets delivered in the enemy’s most vulnerable places.

        Let them go clap for Bibi and wave the Ukranian flag somewhere where my tax dollars are not involved.

        A vote for the Greens is not a vote to win right now, but for those of us who are horrified at our choices 2024 is an election we’ve already lost. The Greens offer a framework for punishing the Very Important People in the Democratic Party while expressing our rejection of the world as it’s made.

    3. psylocyber

      I agree about the AIPAC control. Our Senators and Congress people on both sides need to grow a pair and regulate them or at least make them register as a foreign agency. Do we let any other foreign country lobby us like that?

      All they have to do is all act at once. Even AIPAC can’t afford to go after everybody all at once. They just pick people off, one or two at a time and scare everybody else. I know there are some good people that are sick of being pushed around like that. They are just justifiably scared for their positions.

      That burns me more than anything. That a foreign country can force people out that “we the people” wanted in. Over one issue. That’s not even ours.

    4. Lambert Strether Post author

      > They’re all controlled by AIPAC

      Not only by AIPAC. There’s also Silicon Valley money (especially crypto), New York finance money, and plenty of family offices, from the squillionaire level down to local gentry. “As simple as possible, but no simpler.”

  14. Samuel Conner

    The thought occurs that there’s a kind “synonymous parallelism” between the 2020 and 2024 D Primaries. In 2020, it was Sanders who was kept away from serious contention for the nomination; this year, JFK, Jr. (and others).

    If JFK, Jr’s “gambit” ends up making the difference in November and if DJT actually allows JFK, Jr. to meaningfully influence domestic policy, and that policy influence leads to good outcomes [I admit that’s an awful lot of “if”s], it will for me invite meditation on what Sanders might have been able to achieve in 2020 if he had been willing to be similarly non-compliant with the Party’s preferences.

    1. hk

      RFK Jr. Seeing as that JFK Jr has been fish food for many years, it’s a bit disturbing even if it’s a typo….

      2. ambrit

        Remember that JFK Jr died in a small aircraft “accident.” Politicos today had better watch out for getting the “Earl Boggs Treatment.”

          1. ambrit

            Ouch! I conflated Hale Boggs with Earl long, both North American Deep South politicos.
            Thanks for the catch. (I do sound like an AI “feed” with that mistake, alas.)

    2. Lambert Strether Post author

      > If JFK, Jr’s “gambit” ends up making the difference in November and if DJT actually allows JFK, Jr. to meaningfully influence domestic policy, and that policy influence leads to good outcomes [I admit that’s an awful lot of “if”s], it will for me invite meditation on what Sanders might have been able to achieve in 2020 if he had been willing to be similarly non-compliant with the Party’s preferences.

      A good marker to lay down.

  15. RookieEMT

    His comments on the health crisis are just amazing to hear from a presidential candidate. His appeals to eliminate and curb processed foods, environmental toxins, and try to address chronic disease is so appealing. Mentioning how the poor are hurt the worst by our food system is amazing. I wish he succeeded despite falling flat on his face on the Israeli issue.

    Not sure what he sees in Trump but I get it if there’s a little vengeance against the Democrats. The party of FDR is dead. Of course these Vote Blue No Matter Who crowd types want to tear him to pieces. He was never part of their crowd, and unlike Bernie he walked out on the Dems.

    So yeah, I can’t feel anything against him.

    1. Reply

      They’re in need of a new color saying.
      Yellow Dog Dem
      Blue Dog Dem
      what next?
      They treat voters like Fauci Beagle Dems :(

    2. Lambert Strether Post author

      > His comments on the health crisis are just amazing to hear from a presidential candidate. His appeals to eliminate and curb processed foods, environmental toxins, and try to address chronic disease is so appealing.

      I was genuinely moved by this. I know, “will nobody think of the children?”, but indeed, think of children!

      1. dorane

        Honestly, you really think RFK, Jr. will be able to attack Big Food & Big Agro, among others, and then actually implement citizen-health policies? With Drump in the WH?
        Utterly hilarious. Just another empty campaign promise. Kennedy will be sacked within three months

  16. aleph_0

    I’m not sure I buy that this is a big deal. I just hear another person whining about the refs and the other sides not playing by the rules. I mean, you were attacking the dragon head on, and you expect them to fight fair? And you didn’t have contingency plans for when you get knifed? The two party system spent 150 years building this. They’re not going to back down easily.

    This is not a serious man.

    And I say this as a Bernie 2016 supporter and 2020 donator and door knocker. These outside movements are missing something crucial – they don’t seem to know how to or want to use leverage to actually rock the boat in a real way.

    Hat tip to Vincent Bevins’s incredible observation in “If We Burn” who pointed out that modern protest is basically complaint to authority to step in and “fix” things without wanting to take power and actually govern.

    Well, there’s no authority to step in, and even if there were, they’re probably pretty happy with the way things are running.

    As I said in another comment, I desperately want to find something acceptable for USA 2024, but this ain’t it. This is sound and fury signifying nothing, and like the Trump assassination attempt, probably doesn’t change the trajectory of the race.

    1. IM Doc

      Two things –

      First, I have found it fascinating watching this site and its comments over the very long haul of longer than a decade.

      When events occur like this today, suddenly there is an influx of commenters whose names I have certainly not seen maybe at all or with any kind of regularity showing up to all of a sudden opine. Fascinating that it is always opining in favor of the establishment narrative or candidate. And often what is said is either absolutely ridiculous or not based in reality.

      I will never forget the weeks of commentary from someone never before encountered regarding COVID and the COVID vaccine, that then subsequently was found to be a wikipedia moderator/troll.

      I am not being unwelcome at all – it is just an observation.

      Secondly, my wife and I have been big supporters of RFK. I am a new deal Dem. I have been absolutely horrified at much of what the Dems/DNC/MSNBC have done over the past decade or so, basically since Obamacare. I saw Rachel Maddow clip on TV this AM – basically stating – “You will remember where you were when you heard this Kamala speech tonight” – Instant vomit. I think it was one of the more pedestrian speeches I have heard in my life. These people are completely deluded. After a lifetime of wondering, I now know how regular thinking Germans must have felt in the 30s as the Nazis were picking up steam and the cult was spreading. It is truly troubling.

      After thinking about today’s events, I will likely be pulling the lever for Trump, with a big nose pinch and a fresh dose of an anti-nausea pill. I see it as by far and away the least problematic of two problems. And if he can somehow appoint RFK Jr to a post where he can do this country good – I would dare say that one RFK Jr is better than the entire KlownKarBrigade/Suicide Squad we have as a cabinet now under the Dems. Looking right at you – the entire State Dept/CIA/DOD leadership – and dunk tank clowns like Buttigieg.

      I am also really fascinated with what I am seeing among the people I am intimately around all day. The PMC types are all Dem all the time. Almost cult-like in their adoration. The working class ( as in my entire office staff of Gen Z/Millenial/Latino – big Hillary voters) are all in for Trump. And I mean all in. It is like the entire landscape has completely shifted. I am going to be paying deep attention going forward. If it continues like it is now, Trump is clearly the one who will be least damaging to the middle and working class – and I will vote for a GOP candidate for Pres for the first time in my adult lifetime.

      And FYI, I do not believe in any way I am alone.

      1. Reply

        The working class younger members are ignored by media when they are not disdained.
        They respond rationally by consuming news outside the bubble.
        There is resistance to that notion in the PMC, even after policy failures pile up. People see through the lies every time they buy groceries and pay rent.

      3. Amfortas the Hippie

        you are not alone, Doc.
        i just got there a bit earlier(clinton’s first administration, where he finished what reagan started).
        i like Vance a universe more than ive liked any republican since Russel Kirk died.
        and i tried my best to save the dems from themselves…until obama saved wall street…and then i said, a pox on both houses.
        briefly returned for Bernie…but, well, we cant have that, now, can we?

        hillary and the rest of the literally ancien regime of dncland remind me so very much of my elder cousin(retired ibm exec)and mom, who were lifelong best buddies til recently…

        ive told them that Bernie WAS the middle ground,lol…as was FDR…
        but me being an actual anarcho-socialist guy was never taken seriously by those folks…as above, so sorta below,lol.

        burn it all down and start over.
        theyve already lit all the fires necessary…so my hands remain clean.
        i voted for Perot, twice.

        the silver lining, i suppose, is that we get to watch from the relative hinterlands as it all implodes into laurel ash and concave mirror shards.
        and i DO get to say, “I toldya!”

        i prescribe eric satie’s whole album, “once upon a time in Paris”, as a palliative/anxiolytic.
        some of this new batch of Homegrown doesnt hurt, either.

      4. Societal Illusions

        i hear you. well shared points.

        i wish RFK would have been in a debate as it would have changed its complexity for sure – likely to the chagrin of both mainstream candidates. perhaps this is a bigger contribution to his departure. i find the timing thusly suspect. but who knows what goes on behind closed doors.

      5. aleph_0

        Let me start by saying that I tremendously appreciate your posts on COVID and vaccines. They’ve been very useful to me across the years. Thank you for contributing to the site. I’ve been reading for a long time, but I don’t know that I have knowledge useful to the readership that’s not already being covered by the commentariat, Yves, or Lambert so I don’t post often.

        I’m not voting for any establishment candidate (Kamala or Trump), do not wish others to vote for Kamala or Trump, and I resent your implied suggestion of steering others “back to the fold of the establishment”. Please, vote your value, and I would also appreciate you to not strawman me or imply I’m some kind of crypto-dem.

        I, myself, find RFK, Biden, Trump, and Kamala to be wretched on COVID (no spread control). I, myself, find RFK, Biden, Trump, and Kamala to be wretched on foreign policy. Those are my current issues. I, too, am mostly a New Deal Democrat in the streets, now without a home post Bernie showing the same unseriousness in 2020 that RFK showed today.

        I found the similarity interesting, so I posted about it.

        I remain homeless politically. That’s great if you aren’t. I can’t see it as anything but cope, and it’s wild to me to see the literal previous POTUS (who has had near total institutional support from the Republican Party for almost a decade and employed many of the same people at State as Dems, etc) as anything but an establishment candidate in 2024.

        2. steppenwolf fetchit

          Perhaps New Deal Democrats should stop calling themselves New Deal Democrats and start calling themselves New Deal Reactionaries.

          ” The New Deal was a good deal for most of us. I miss my New Deal. I want my New Deal back.”

          I sometimes tell people that I am a New Deal Reactionary.

      6. Verifyfirst

        I am one of the 110,000 or so “Uncommitted” voters in the Michigan Dem primary, protesting Gaza, and I will remain so for the general (I will vote Jill Stein and other third party in races where that option exists, unless the Palestinians tell me otherwise).

        I have voted straight Dem for 46 years (true, it’s been an abusive relationship…), but Hamas has succeeded in ripping the veil from my eyes in a way I would never have thought possible. Pol Pot is the closest analogy I can think of for what Israel is doing.

        As one wag recently said, “Whichever one wins, Netanyahu will remain your President re: Gaza”.

        Trump only won Michigan by 10,000 votes in 2016, and Biden only won Michigan by 150,000 votes in 2020, out of some 5.5. million or so ballots cast. It would be very useful if Harris lost Michigan (and thus the race?) by a small margin, say 110,000 votes or less–and her loss was attributed to her support for Israel.

        1. Cat Burglar

          I wonder if we may discover that Uncommitted voters in Michigan might be a much larger threat to Harris than polls are letting on. There has not been that much media attention on it lately, and that seems strange. Biden may have truly sown the wind.

          1. rowlf

            Media attention?

            Why give the proletariat and other classes ideas that they could influence an election?

        2. Orphan

          I appreciate and relate to your sentiment, VerifyFirst. As someone who considers himself anti-war, the 2024 election is a come to Jesus moment. All my old lines of thinking and understanding are getting redrawn.

      7. Cat Burglar

        I follow your reasoning, though I have written off any short-term effect from voting, You want to have a vote effective in this presidential election, which seems to be the reason you’re voting for Trump.

        I’ve written off any short-term impact, so I a am voting for Stein, which, with enough votes, could have a small but focused impact toward social democratic, pro-worker policies.

        2. Leftist Mole

          I voted Stein in the last two elections. Renewing my drivers license I finally changed my affiliation to Green Party. I was a big Bernie supporter, but a genocide we can all see on social media has convinced me the Ds are too vile to stomach any more.

      8. The Rev Kev

        ‘When events occur like this today, suddenly there is an influx of commenters whose names I have certainly not seen maybe at all or with any kind of regularity showing up to all of a sudden opine.’

        Sort of like how after those two Boeing 737 MAX crashes, this guy turns up on NC with the handle ‘737 Pilot’ or some such to try to spin those crashes as not really Boeing’s fault.

        1. aleph_0

          I wish we had the in-person meet-ups still. I feel like I rarely have anything interesting to add to the blog, but I’ve respected your and others’ takes for years. I’ve been reading since ’07ish, when I needed a crash course in finance.

          1. IM Doc

            I may have been a bit harsh above – and for that I do apologize.

            It is likely the PTSD coming through from the past 4 years – and I have daily reminders of all that has gone south under Biden (interestingly not Trump). In the past 60 Minutes, et al would have been all over it – now the press act like cult members with the grape koolaid in hand.

            This week – I have seen 15 patients in the ER alone for COVID. 2 of them have been admitted. Every last one has been boosted multiple times. Biden and his COVID and Fauci and his COVID – both multiple COVID episodes – both multiple boosters – are the archetypes of where we are now. Over and over again. And then on top of it, yet another patient this week who developed a severe vasculitis after his last booster last fall – and has been circling the drain since.

            What am I saying? – We “put the adults in charge” – and have been paying for it dearly ever since. Absolutely no one in charge is even acknowledging these problems, much less investigating them. And so many of them were FORCED to get these shots – and then to add insult to injury, the Dems have been responsible for the worst censoring and scientific discussion suppression I have ever witnessed in my life. Who exactly are the fascists?

            I am very tired. I am seeing things around me every day that are just being ignored by all of those in charge. And standing at the fore is Kamala, et al. I guess it is PTSD. And I blame people like the wikipedia troll from a few years ago for much of where we are now. Blind and ignorant acquiescence to insanity. So, do not take it personally – I see things like your comment and emotionally remember a few years ago and I see the extreme consequences in patients around me – and I tend to lash.

            1. Bsn

              Doc, it’s time to be harsh. I’ve lost a few friends over the last couple years and my life is much more calm. I’m feeling less stress in having to hide behind phrases such as “I hear what you’re saying” or ‘Well, perhaps you’re right”. It’s gotten to the point where I can’t stand idly by and just smile. It’s like when speaking to someone and they come out with seriously racist jokes or comments. I learned a long time ago not to put up with that illiterate drivel. So now I don’t put up with illiterate (and uninformed) drivel regarding Covid, the Dem party and Gazacide.

            2. Lupana

              But how is Trump any different? He’s already been president and we had Operation Warp Speed/ Fauci….Sanctions galore….Weapons spread across the world – Ukraine , the Middle East ….. Overthrow of the government of Bolivia …. Attempted overthrow of the government of Venezuela ….. Increase of the MIC ….. Increase in national debt ….. Tax cuts for the rich …… The assassination of Soulemani ….. I could go on but the man may talk a good game but the policies are what matter and he hasn’t shown himself to be any different than any of the others. I personally do not see how we vote ourselves out of the situation we’re in. Trump is not the answer. Harris is not the answer. Kennedy or Stein may mean well but even had one of them been elected – who in the entire labyrinth of government would work wth them? Maybe I’m not creative enough in my thinking but I don’t see how an electoral process run by the status quo is going to be allowed to challenge and change the status quo.

              1. hk

                This is just my view, but here’s the difference I think:

                1. Trump is a goon, a jerk, and a not-very-nice guy (at least). He’s not a particularly good politician and a chaotic administrator. He was not a very good president and I don’t have too much expectation that he will be too different. BUT, he did reshape the Republican Party in the right direction to some degree. They are a little more open to accommodating the popular discontent–not by much, but at least a little bit. They are run more democratically and their elites have been at least a bit humbled and have been forced to at least undergo a pretense of listening to the people. I would say that my view is more like that of the teamsters’ leadership: I don’t trust them yet, but I’m willing to take a chance on them being willing to deal in earnest with the American people.

                2) In contrast, the Democratic Party has become, as shown in the last few weeks, downright scary. In 2016 and, to a degree, in 2020, they were run with such arrogance and smug condescension that they deservedly lost a lot of trust, at least from me. But, in the last few weeks, they pulled off a genuine coup and put up a ludicrous charade act that installed someone whom no one voted for as a presidential candidate (b/c she was a lousy candidate in 2020 and b/c she was never a presidential candidate in 2024), while keeping the man they declared as unfit as the president. After that, we are being fed a saccharine and pointless propaganda that says absolutely nothing other than disdain for the American pepole and our concerns that masquerades as a “campaign.” I consider the entire act a con job on the American people and a political crime of highest order, something that, if we, as the American people fall for, we don’t deserve to be a real country any more. Practically anyone (yes, including Trump) deserves vote more than this gang of criminals. As far as I’m concerned, democracy demands that these goons be voted out, no matter what it takes: any and every vote for the Democrats is a vote for fascism now.

                1. Lupana

                  I don’t disagree with you on your assessment of either party. You are imo completely correct. I am just so sick of the wars, the suffering this country inflicts on the world and the verbal belligerence exhibited by both Harris and Trump and their respective parties that I cannot or will not vote for either party. I say this realizing my one vote is insignificant and that others can make a legitimate case for their choice. I’ve just come to the conclusion that I am not supporting evil anymore whether the lesser or the greater evil – neither speaks for me.

            3. aleph_0

              I’m honestly sorry about the tone I took in here. It wasn’t really the right place to express it, and it really wasn’t my proudest moment to come in and upset a bunch of people who I respect.

              Speaking as someone who lost a couple of family members to COVID, I appreciate you continuing to fight the good fight. I can’t really imagine what that’s like dealing with on a daily basis, year after year.

          2. Milton

            Yeah, David Dayan “sent” me here when he referenced this blog many times in his numerous FDL posts.

            1. ALW


              I have you beat Jane at FDL sent me here because of her linking
              to many posts. I have only commented on one occasion before and it was when i donated to WC one year. Otherwise I have no idea the year I started being a regular here but it was probably 10 years ago or so.

        2. JerryDenim

          During the OJ Simpson trial, Americans were divided. Years latter we found out Black people were right, OJ was framed by the police. We also found out white people were right, he did murder his wife.

          As I recall the 737 pilot guy was right about the flap handle and MCAS. I checked his assertions with two different 737 check-airman (online training pilots) friends of mine. He probably bugged out here because he was accused of being a plant or not knowing what he was talking about. I was called a racist for pointing out different countries have different safety cultures and this can contribute to or serve to mitigate air disasters. It is possible that Boeing built a criminally dangerous and flawed aircraft (fact really), and the pilots flying in the two accidents simultaneously made some big and preventable mistakes. This view doesn’t make one a racist or plant, perhaps the disconnect is indicative of a real-world working knowledge not available on the internet and people should not assume their knowledge is the final word because they can perform a Google search. It’s best not to assume too much about the intentions of online strangers in my experience.

          1. Yves Smith

            737 Guy was substantially wrong and misleading. Airbrushed out critical things like the lack of a third sensor check in case of disagreement, the software insistently pointing the nose down and being incredibly difficult to crank back up, and the appalling failure to even report the changes in manuals, which is where alert pilots would expect to find it, let alone train for it. Getting a technical thing or two right looks like a successful effort to gain credibility with flying-knowledgeable people like you.

      9. zach

        I see it as by far and away the least problematic of two problems.

        And, i see, what you did there.

        Joonyah had my attention, but he didn’t have my vote (i had long ago decided to sit this one out).

        If my views are not represented by a candidate in the running, then my vote doesn’t matter whether it’s cast or not.

        A nationwide boycott of the vote, that’s what i vote for this year. Tear the bandaid, pull back the curtain, and leave no doubts as to the true nature of Our Great Republic – that locomotor will keep steaming forward even if we all stay home.

        That said, I think now he’s dropped out, i’ll exercise my right to not materially influence anything of historical significance. Just for grins.

      10. ChrisFromGA

        My voting history:

        Dukakis ’88
        Clinton ’92 (I still regret not voting for H. Ross Perot)
        Dole ’96
        Bush 2000 (mistake)
        Bush 2004 (I did not learn)
        Cynthia McKinney 2008
        Trump 2016
        Trump 2020

        There is no place for me in either party. I was going to vote for RFK Jr. but now that he has endorsed Trump, I’ll hold my nose and vote for the Donald.

      11. Woody in Florida

        Forced to choose between Trump and Harris…I would choose Trump. However I live in Florida so I can use my vote to make a statement. That vote will go for Stein, let everyone know that some of us are tired of being forced to choose between two terrible candidates, plus she actually sounds sane. Trump will carry Florida no matter how I vote.

      12. jerryDenim

        I have been reading this blog since 2008. You’re right Doc it’s changed, or at least a good portion of the commentariat has. This blog has always been contrarian, populist, smart and patriotic, as in concerned for the welfare of the United State patriotic, but definitely not partisan in any sense. There was a general sense of old-school class conscious lunchbox lefty-ism here, but with a clear disdain for id-pol sectarian siloing that the right now refers to as “cultural marxism”. The early themes were well encapsulated in Yves book “ECONned”. I distributed one or two copies every time I visited the progressive, idealistic souls occupying Zuccoti Park back in the fall of 2011. Those themes were far from Trumpy or right wing. The man himself being an inherited real-estate tycoon and celebrity huckster. It seems a good-deal of pissed-off contrarians, desperate for change, congregated in the comments section here, are confusing being an arsonist with being an architect. I assure you Trump is the former, not the latter. I can also get a really good idea of who has all-white family and friends. Dismissing the agenda and the danger posed by people like Stephen Miller and violent mobs of angry young men openly carrying torches, clubs and shields bearing the insignias of white supremacist groups, Nazis or other fascists is a luxury afforded to callous WASPs and fools, or people who silently yearn for ethnic cleansing and secretly harbor sympathies for these groups.

        Trump already remade the courts in his first term taking us right back to the Lochner era that bedeviled FDR’s attempted progressive reforms. The entire administrative state is under attack now and once it is gone it will be ‘the law of the west’ – might equals right and the billionaires and corporations will once again trample the individual atomized citizenry like elephants on grass without any interference from the government. If this is the change you desire, by all means, vote Trump, you will get the change you seek. All of this is before you even consider the consequences of the Christian Taliban and other dark, anti-enlightenment, regressive forces riding Trump’s coat tails. “The Hand Maid’s Tale” seems entirely plausible if not likely at this point.

        You frequently rant here about Democrats and the Affordable Care Act, which I agree is an abomination. I also agree our health care system is the shame of this nation. But please, seriously, tell me what the hell has Donald Trump or any Republican ever done to combat the evil nexus of privatized plunder being perpetrated on the citizenry by an unholy alliance of big pharma, insurance, hedge funds and a grifting PMC upper management? How is unleashing a libertarian, “law of the west” might-equals-right nightmare going to help your working class patients be free of the depredation you decry? The wacky MAGA Republicans are so stupid and crazed they even accuse free market Capitalist financier extraordinaire Mitt Romney of being a “socialist”?! Can people this economically illiterate be trusted to fix anything? Every problem a Republican encounters can be fixed one of two ways, tax cuts or deregulation. How is that going to solve grifting hedge funds with local health care monopolies literally demanding – “your money or your life?”

        One last thing- you said:

        “These people are completely deluded. After a lifetime of wondering, I now know how regular thinking Germans must have felt in the 30s as the Nazis were picking up steam and the cult was spreading.”

        This, this I must concede takes the prize for clueless irony. Are we to believe you’re a nice guy and totally not a Nazi, but your white-hot hatred for Pete Buttigeig is forcing you to support the candidate whose supporters literally rally under Nazi and Confederate banners while they sack the Capitol at his direction and murder college girls with muscle cars? All of this right before our eyes but you would have us believe Americans willing to vote against this dark, fascist, tyranny and chaos are the 1930’s Nazi analogs? Wow. You’ve shown your colors, take a bow.

        As Trump would say, “sad”

        1. IM Doc

          Oh please, go get a fan and fan yourself.

          You obviously have not spent too much time like I did yesterday listening to some ( not all ) my physician colleagues fawning over the glorious Kamala speech. It is truly like being around cult members – no matter how agregiously stupid the speech is – it is automatically glorious. I listened to it – basically the theme of the entire performance was “We do not have to live like this.” As I pointed out to my cult member colleagues yesterday – How rich it is that she gave that speech as a member of the party in charge. The dissonance is just breathtaking. I heard Trump this and Trump that – but I heard zero actual ideas on how to go forward. And the scolding of the American people about following rich people coming from people with mansions on Martha’s Vineyard and others worth billions was among the most hypocritical things I have ever witnessed. Just breathtaking. Again, lots of mouth slobbering – but no real answers or even identification of problems.

          Contrast this to RFK’s speech yesterday. In less than an hour, the man identified and dissected the problem, or elephant in the room, that I have been battling all of my life – the corruption of our federal health agencies and the absolutely horrid state of our food supply sickening huge chunks of our people. I struggle with this daily – not only the physical toll it takes on patients and so many of them – but the enormous costs and fraud and corruption that are just piling up. Until this issue is resolved we will be doomed as a country. It is quite literally the first time I have heard it addressed in my lifetime.

          As far as Nazis —- just look around you – go talk to these people – It is a comparison that is very unfortunate but that does not mean it is not true. And go find the video this week of the Gov of Kentucky – Andy Beshear – Dem – and his discussion on how Vance’s wife and kids need to be treated to truly understand abortion – Handmaid’s Tale my ass – who are the real brownshirts?

          Again – I am a New Deal Dem – doing my best to stick up for the workers and middle class in my life – I can therefore with zero conscience vote for any Dems right now.

          1. JerryDenim

            I don’t need a fan I’m not overheated. I’m not the one spewing silly vitriol like “KlownKarBrigade/Suicide Squad” and non-stop whataboutism like your last post.

            I’ve lived all over this country and still travel it regularly. I honestly don’t talk to Nazis if I can help it, but I do talk to my fair share of Trump supporters. I don’t consider myself a member of K-Hive, but I talk to them too. My Indian mother-in-law, a doctor who works at a subsidized low-income health clinic in LA is a superfan. Most Trump supporters I speak to sound a lot like you, rightfully angry with the Democrats corruption and hypocrisy, but completely unable to defend Trumpism. It’s a dark cult of personality with a lot of cathartic anger, bluster, and braggadocio, but not much more. The Trump supporters I’ve engaged with immediately fall back on whataboutsim to argue in favor of Trump. When challenged on a falsehood they equivocate, attempt to change the topic or get really angry. The ones I’ve met so far tend to be low-information voters that mostly rely on social media right-wing echo chambers for their opinions. As far as RFK Jr. truth telling, it’s really easy to play “Bullworth” when you’re suspending your third party campaign that never really had a chance. My very liberal wife was impressed by his stump speech in the beginning of his campaign too, but none of that means he’s not selling out his environmental principles by endorsing Trump now.

            “Who are the real Brownshirts?” Is this a joke? Do I really need to explain it to you? I’m not farting around, speaking in metaphors or using hyperbole here. What I see is what I thought everyone with eyeballs, a brain and a little knowledge of history sees. The real brownshirts are the people with tiki torches, clubs, nazi/white supremacist insignias and tattoos marching in Charlottesville and sacking the Capitol at Trump’s behest. The American 2024 version of Nazi rank and file are the people waving the “MASS DEPORTATIONS NOW” banners at the RNC in Milwaukee. Given what we know of these types of movements and the animal forces they can unleash, it is a bit alarming you are not troubled about their inclusion in the MAGA movement.

            The real problem I have with your commentary is not your support of RFK, whom I find likable and frequently salient, but rather your dangerous and demonstrably false claim: “Trump is clearly the one who will be least damaging to the middle and working class”

            How? More giant tax cuts to the wealthy to explode inequality? Gutting the EPA so your patients can have more toxins in their water and more pesticides in their food? By opposing raising the minimum wage and attempting to suppress union activity? By taking away access to birth control, IVF and abortion? I watched a little bit of the RNC and besides calls for deportations the most common applause line was calling for the abolition of the Department of Education with a few calls for the abolition of the EPA. These people are mad. You said of KH’s speech: “The dissonance is just breathtaking. I heard Trump this and Trump that – but I heard zero actual ideas on how to go forward.” Pure whataboutism. What exactly are the Trump/Republican ideas for “going forward”? What is Trump’s plan to stop the outrageous and abusive plunder of America through our privatized health care system controlled by financiers? More deregulation and tax breaks for hedge funds that buy doctor practices? I would really like to hear your answer to this very fair question. Trump has no policies to combat the worst depredations of our late-phase neoliberal capitalist system. In fact, all of his plans to gut regulatory agencies will make the situation worse.

            Unless you’re a one-issue wealthy voter looking for a tax break, a fundamentalist yearning for theocracy or a white supremacist in love with your cult leader, Trump offers America absolutely nothing positive. If you really care about the working and middle class I think you should reexamine your support for Trump, or if you want to support Trump, at least stop claiming you’re a New Deal Democrat. The two cannot be reconciled.

            1. hk

              Serious question: have the Democrats done anything that does better than the Trump administration in the past four years? What have they done that’s demonstrably better? All that Democrats do nowadays is to stroke nostaligia, that the Democrats used to be better decades ago, and give excuses: Oh, we couldn’t do anything b/c we didn’t have 60 Senators, or whatever. In 2020, they came to power on the promise that, since Trump has been so awful, they’ll fix things up and do things that are demonstrably and obviously better. But we don’t see much, at least none that I can list off the top of my head, except, the appointment of Lina Khan. In the meantime, they have been deceiving the American people and going about destroying America’s standing around the world at cost of trillions of dollars, while doing nothing to address the economic security and social stability issues that plague the American people, especially working and middle class. Maybe it’s not a case for Trump, but I’m not making that case. I am making a case against the Democrats, who do, after all, hold the White House and, at least for two years, all of Congress.

            2. Yves Smith

              You do need a fainting couch. The Capitol was not sacked. We had all of one incident of Tiki torches and that was YEARS ago.

              By contrast, we have authoritarianism NOW in terms of press censorship. Max Blumenthal and Aaron Mate were kicked off YT so their convention coverage would be largely hidden. Scott Ritter had the FBI search his home and take things that were beyond the warrant and Federal Courts said were public records and he could have. Judge Napolitano was kicked off YT for a week for the sin of interviewing Pepe Escobar. The Cradle was kicked off Meta apparently for having Pepe Escobar as its lead columnist. We also have NewsGuard goons threatening everyone from ConsortiumNews to Jonathan Turley. And this sort of thing has been chilling, I know personally many figures who tell me they have to engage in self censorship.

              And spare me the Nazi trope. We are supporting actual Nazis in Ukraine and Azov battalion members have even gotten audiences with Congresscritters.

              1. Swamp Yankee

                Yves,

                Without wishing to delve into the larger dispute in this thread, and without wishing to be confrontational — I don’t understand the statement you make above: “The Capitol was not sacked.”

                Could you expand on why you view “sacked” as an inaccurate description of what happened at the US Capitol on Jan. 6th, 2021?

                From my perspective, the lawful authority, the State in the largest sense, lost control of the seat of the national legislature to a crowd which took it by force; the Capitol was then vandalized.

                If you don’t view “sacked” as an appropriate description of those events, what would one be? I’m asking genuinely here, not rhetorically.

                A related question: even if one views concerns around Trump and his friendliness to the hard right as overwrought, do you think they have any legitimate basis? Again, a genuine, not rhetorical question.

                Thanks for the opportunity to ask these questions.

          2. Waking Up

            IM Doc: I’ve been reading this website and occasionally making comments for over a decade now. Just want to say that I really appreciate your comments and the personal data you have provided, especially regarding Covid.

            Please stay healthy for your patients and those of us who want to hear your insights on the medical profession. (and yourself, of course.) Thank you.

            1. juliania

              I’m late here, but my thanks also, IMDoc – and thanks to Yves and Lambert for this discussion, and for the video.

        2. psylocyber

          C’mon,
          The Capitol wasn’t “sacked” and the people running around the previous years with torches (and flags) and looting and committing arson were “Progressives”. I would have considered myself a Progressive (quite) a few years ago, but this is ridiculous.

          Black is white, men are women, even in prison and in the bathroom. Far more damage was done by the BLM protests which did cause damage in my town. I’ve yet to see a white supremacist waving a flag anywhere except on TV, unless you count all those nazi Canadian Truckers that were similarly maligned and robbed and persecuted for a VERY peaceful protest.

          Jan 6 was obviously instigated by the Feds. And there were MANY legitimate election concerns AS THERE ARE EVERY ELECTION. I don’t know how old you are, but I remember when Bush stole the election in 2000 with voting machines running proprietary, un-auditable software. They still use machines like that. See Tina Peters’ case in CO. She’s getting railroaded for obeying the law.

          The idea that these elections are and always have been safe and secure is BS. How can so many people forget it was Hillary crying about stolen elections just one election before Trump was accused of “Insurrection” just for suggesting it.

          And for the record, I believe this is the 3rd Presidential election (in a row) where I believe the worst 2 possible candidates were our only choice for the general election.

      13. psylocyber

        FYI, this is my first time on this site, but I agree with almost everything you said. I think this is the 2nd or 3rd major election where we are choosing between the worst 2 candidates. Although in retrospect Trump wasn’t as bad as I thought he would be in 2016. I think we may have needed him to shake stuff up.

        He didn’t follow thru on everything and you had to accept that the guy is a bullshitter (to be kind). Although constant, most of his lies were harmless bragging. I know it seems like poor logic, but he must have been doing something right to PO so many people in so many places.

        No real change can happen without some major changes in our system. I hate to admit it, but I believed in Obama. He was the first major party candidate I had voted for in probably 20 years. The first one I really believed would be different. It was shocking to me to have him be more Cheney than Cheney.

        However, I have believed for quite some time that, either before or after you are elected President, THEY take you down into the basement and threaten your family and show you pictures of JFK’s brains on the trunk of the car, and TELL you what your going to do as President. Obama made me certain. Until Trump and Biden I haven’t noticed any major changes in policy between 6 or 7 Presidents.

        1. Yves Smith

          I too must confess to voting for Obama in 2008 (I nearly stayed home) but I have to differ with you regarding Obama being threatened. It was clear who he was as of Oct 2008. He whipped hard for the noxious TARP. He also dumped Paul Volcker, who he’d used to burnish his bank reform pretenses, for Timothy Geithner.

    2. Socal Rhino

      If RFK would be pulling votes from Harris and Trump in swing states, his exit with Trump endorsement could have a big impact on the electoral college.

      Start the clock on claims that RFK is Putin’s puppet.

      1. MayW

        Both Trump and RFK want to end the war in Ukraine and Russia. So they are automatically labeled as Putin’s puppets by the deep state. Both JFK and RFK were anti-Vietnam war and we knew what happened to them.

    4. Lambert Strether Post author

      > And you didn’t have contingency plans for when you get knifed?

      Maybe what you are seeing was the contingency plan. Do you have another to suggest?

      > This is not a serious man.

      Serious enough to do an amazing job getting on the ballot!

  17. Pelham

    For me the most remarkable parts of the speech were in the latter half. If what he had to say about chronic disease and collusion of the food and pharmaceutical industries is true, it’s devastating. God bless him.

    1. Lambert Strether Post author

      > If what he had to say about chronic disease and collusion of the food and pharmaceutical industries is true, it’s devastating. God bless him.

      I think it’s true. But it’s never been politicized before. Now it is!

      I think Kennedy’s presentation could have been compressed by two-thirds, but to me, his sincerity was evident. Not the “woo woo” Kennedy at all.

        1. Lambert Strether Post author

          Is “Calley Means” his food expert? The transcript seems to be butchering the name (“Ali”) and so forth. Here is her website. I’m not getting “woo woo” vibes, but I not getting any sense of stature at all, either (as I did from the aerosol scientists, say).

          If Kennedy’s wedded to a guru, all bets are off.

          1. Amfortas the Hippie

            i dont know who this Calley person is…but every tortured*word i heard from him(i listened to the whole thing) rings true with what i know already…being something of a dirt to plate to dirt guru, my damned self.
            they literally feed us sawdust, ffs.

            and he spoke the words “regenerative agriculture”!

            thats the newspeak for the old timey “Organic”, before the feds stole it and walled it up behind sewage sludge.
            been my wheelhouse since i was, like, 5 years old.

            (* i can never remember why his voice is like that..but, man! he is hard to listen to for an hour and a half)

            1. Oh

              If it’s better for you you may want to read a transcript instead of listening to his voice. At any rate his voice is a lot better than Kamala’s cackling.

            2. jonboinAR

              Calley’s great. She’s full of information. I’d love to see her at a high position in one of the health/food agencies. Unfortunately, listening to her, her speaking manner is nearly as difficult as “Junior”‘s non-voice. She jabbers, that is, talks way too fast and intensely. I can’t understand most of what she’s saying if I’m doing anything else as I like to while listening to podcasts. But thanks so much for linking her, Yves, very useful.

              Grrr! So many of the informative people I try to listen to on podcasting have voices NOT “made for radio”. That gripe made, I LOVE podcasts. I can work AND learn!

            3. Lambert Strether Post author

              > sewage sludge

              I remember that change-over. A long time ago I used to buy seafood mulch (used to have the yellow rubber bands they loop around the lobster claws in it). That stuff was amazing.

              Then that company went out of business, and was replaced by an “organic” company owned by the landfill operator, Casella. Indeed, it was sewage sludge. Dry and crumbly. Killed the whole bed. Everything I planted there was scrawny.

            4. Tangled up in Texas

              Once I learned he had a physical problem, it became easier for me to forgive his voice. He suffers from spasmodic dysphonia which is a chronic neurological voice disorder. It results in involuntary spasms of the muscles that open or close the vocal folds, causing a voice that presents with breaks and strained / strangled quality.
              https://dysphonia.org/what-is-wrong-with-rfkjr-voice/

              From the LATimes:

              “Kennedy said that while he was preparing litigation against the makers of flu vaccines in 2016, his research led him to the written inserts that manufacturers package along with the medications. He said he saw spasmodic dysphonia on a long list of possible side effects. “That was the first I ever realized that,” he said.

              Although he acknowledged there is no proof of a connection between the flu vaccines he once received annually and SD, he told The Times he continues to view the flu vaccine as ‘at least a potential culprit.’”
              https://www.latimes.com/politics/story/2024-04-08/rfk-jr-voice-condition-spasmodic-dysphonia

              While vaccine injury is not a definitive cause in his case, I know first-hand how difficult it can actually be to get anyone (i.e. doctors) to believe you and to take your complaints and history seriously. I also suffered a flu vacine injury resulting in food allergies that has adversely affected my life for the last 20+ years. It is only recently that doctors give my related history of this injury any credance at all.

          2. judy2shoes

            Casey and Calley Means are the brother and sister team recently interviewed by Tucker Carlson, which was highlighted in recent links here at NC.

            “Casey Means was a Stanford-educated surgeon. Her brother Calley was a lobbyist for pharma and the food industry. Both quit their jobs in horror when they realized how many people were being killed by the systems they participated in.”

            Link:
            https://x.com/TuckerCarlson/status/1824502384254693487

              1. judy2shoes

                I still don’t think they’re of the same stature as the aerosol scientists. Prove me wrong!

                Nah, Lambert, this is not the hill I wish to die on. I was, and still am, in awe of the aerosol scientists. I was just providing some information to answer your question “Is “Calley Means” his food expert?”
                :)

          3. Yves Smith

            We posted on her! She’s a Stanford educated ear and throat surgeon who got disgusted with how she was not treating the underlying illnesses and quit to figure out why Americans are so sick and much sicker than they were not that many decades ago.

            She or maybe her ex-lobbyist brother pointed out in their long Tucker interview how much could be done by executive order, such as nixing FDA funding to people with all sorts of conflicts. The list was pretty good even though I had doubts about being able to implement it.

      2. paul

        I would definitely concur, but that the communal west’s meagre and mean ambitions were fairly well skewered by this speech.
        I don’t like his zionism (which he did not highlight), but that was pretty good.

    2. Michaelmas

      Pelham: If what he had to say about chronic disease … is true, it’s devastating.

      It arguably is, I’m afraid. This, forex, from 2017 –

      New CDC report: More than 100 million Americans have diabetes or prediabetes
      Diabetes growth rate steady, adding to health care burden
      https://archive.cdc.gov/#/details?url=https://www.cdc.gov/media/releases/2017/p0718-diabetes-report.html

      As for juvenile diabetes —
      https://www.niddk.nih.gov/news/archive/2023/study-shows-that-diabetes-young-people-under-age-20-continues-rise

      …an alarming increase in the incidence of type 1 and type 2 diabetes in children and young people from 2002 to … 2018. The study found that, for U.S. children and young adults, new diagnoses of type 1 diabetes increased by approximately 2 percent every year, while new cases of type 2 diabetes increased by more than 5 percent every year. The rates of increase in both type 1 and type 2 diabetes were higher among American Indian, Asian or Pacific Islander, Hispanic, and non-Hispanic Black populations, compared to the non-Hispanic White population ….

      The U.S. vs ROW COVID mortalities are, of course, as Kennedy claimed. The US had 4 percent of the world’s population but 16 percent of the deaths.

      1. JBird4049

        I saying that my weight keeps dropping and my overall health keeps improving although my diet is old school American cuisine, but I make almost everything and it’s organic if possible. It is no wonder that Americans are increasingly in awful health.

        Also, on the current “campaign,” it reminds me of Pakistan and the American backed Pakistani military’s ouster of Imran Khan. The Empire really is coming home.

        If the American government is willing to nakedly overthrow the duly elected head of a major power and ally such as Pakistan, what does that portend for the American future? Surely, the Democratic Party and its allies would be willing to overthrow a duly elected Trump Administration even if the results were even close. I believe that we truly are in Seven Days in May situation only without the honest patriotism or concerns about the nation’s safety, just concerns about personal power and safety.

        1. Amfortas the Hippie

          re: Imran Khan, etc, etc(long line of those,lol)
          as was said, by somebody :”Jakarta is Coming”…as in the Jakarta Method.
          that book scared the hell out of me when i read it…as if Robert Anton Wilson had suddenly been proven right about everything…or PK Dick, for that matter.

          but its all been right there, in the US army field manuals for “counterinsurgency”, and the like.
          ive been watching all that crap “come home” for most of my adult life.

  19. BlueDuck

    Gonna be interesting to see which way the Sonoma-Marin Anti-Vaxx moms tilt after RFK’s endorsement.

  20. JustTheFacts

    I still think that voting for Kennedy on the ballots where he’ll still be there makes sense: a good showing should give him some leverage over Trump, if Trump wins. Certainly don’t think voting for the Antonym party makes sense. (Call themselves Democrats, act anything but democratically).

    If the “Kennedys” think their genetics are remotely relevant, and not RFK’s record working for the environment and health, they’re seriously deluded. The US got rid of people whose claim to relevance was their ancestry a long time ago.

    1. hk

      The Dems are full of people desperately clinging to the “identities” their often made up/highly fictionalized ancestors gave them though…

    2. Lambert Strether Post author

      > he US got rid of people whose claim to relevance was their ancestry a long time ago.

      I don’t think that’s true, based on the number of celebrities whose children were celebrities.

  21. steppenwolf fetchit

    Kennedy has shown what political toughness is. I don’t know if he is quietly pro-Trump or not in any subjective inner way, but he wants to impose a genuine cost on the DemPartycrats for their dishonest and anti-democratic lawfaring and etc. behavior.

    If Sanders woulda/coulda done the same, ” Sandersism” might be a political force now.

    I don’t want to see Trump win, but if this could raise the chances of Trump winning, the ” okay, what now?” community should be thinking starting now on what to achieve and how to achieve it in the space Kennedy will have blasted open.

    If life hands you demons, make demonade.

    1. Samuel Conner

      > in the space Kennedy will have blasted open.

      It might be an argument for Progressives to hold their noses (it may feel like twisting them until they bleed) and vote DJT in the swing states.

      Kick the D Party where it hurts to show them what happens when you piss off people who want a say in who is nominated at the Convention.

    2. John Anthony La Pietra

      > If life hands you demons, make demonade.

      That’s a keeper!

      > It might be an argument for Progressives to hold their noses
      > (it may feel like twisting them until they bleed) and vote DJT in the swing states.

      Would it hurt those Progressives more or less if they voted for Stein instead? (Which way would it hurt the Ds more?)

  22. Lambert Strether Post author

    > Kennedy has shown what political toughness is. I don’t know if he is quietly pro-Trump or not in any subjective inner way, but he wants to impose a genuine cost on the DemPartycrats for their dishonest and anti-democratic lawfaring and etc. behavior.

    If Sanders woulda/coulda done the same, ” Sandersism” might be a political force now.

    Good points.

    1. Glenda

      “If Sanders woulda/coulda done the same, ” Sandersism” might be a political force now.”

      Sigh – I’ll still be voting for Jill Stein – the ONLY PEACE candidate.
      Safe to do in CA, a solid blue state.

  23. Samuel Conner

    > The wonderful thing about Kennedy throwing his support to Trump to end childhood suffering is that it could give Trump, for once in his life, the moral high ground.

    I take some additional encouragement from the thought that it isn’t a giant conceptual move from “there is empirical evidence that the current US food system is harming the young (and most of the rest of us, too)” to “there is empirical evidence that unmitigated CV spread and frequent re-infection is harming the young (and most of the rest of us, too).” Perhaps drawing attention to the one harm will create some space for the other harm to get some attention, too.

    OTOH, I get the impression that RFK, Jr. is a very mixed bag when it comes to the pandemic. He seems, for example, to be strongly opposed (personally and as public health policy) to individual masking as a CV mitigation (not a lot of familiar-site hits in Google, though; perhaps an illustration of the media inattention to him that he mentioned in his speech).

    1. Lambert Strether Post author

      > OTOH, I get the impression that RFK, Jr. is a very mixed bag when it comes to the pandemic.

      I have always regarded (and still regard) RFK as more susceptible to woo woo than other candidates (“no keel” as I think expressed it). That said, this also argues that he can change his mind based on the case made to him (and not on the basis of a pure calculation of the correlation of forces in the given moment)*.

      NOTE * I’ve also looked at the footnotes in his book. They’re …. not good.

      1. chris

        A reasonable estimate for anything coming out of RFK jr.’s mouth about science is 50% is made up. It sounds good when he says it! But it’s BS.

  24. Duke of Prunes

    After a week of wall-to-wall d-party “joy” K lovefest, this little speech is a wonderful antidote.

    It will be interesting to see how well the MSM can memory-hole it.

  25. Trogg

    RFK oozes sleaze. He can’t think Trump of all people is going to fix food! His campaign was a Producer’s style money grab, culminating with the selection of a billionaire as a running mate, and that also goes for his “activism” over the years also. Watching our supposed independent banner waiver, protest candidate go all in for Israel was the most depressing thing I’ve seen in politics, as someone who cast his first vote for the one presidential candidate who actually would have fixed food—Ralph Nader. Third part politics is now a swamp that needs draining. I’m leaving my ballot blank this year unless there is someone on the ballot in my state who pledges to embargo Israel.

      1. Yves Smith

        As far as I can tell, he is a consumer, and not a seller, of junk food. So I don’t get your point. In fact, he could even depict himself as a victim: “Look, I can afford better, but I eat this stuff because they’ve done such a good job of making it addictive.”

    2. jonboinAR

      As long as someone like Jill Stein is on the ballot, anyone who’s opinion is “a pox on both their houses!” I think should vote for her rather than leave the ballot blank. Protest vote, anyway, man! I think it makes just slightly more of a “pop” than leaving it blank. Exactly what her platform is, in that case, is slightly beside the point.

  26. The Rev Kev

    About two days ago, Lambert showed a tweeted video in Water Cooler by RFK’s VP Nicole Shanahan on how the DNC sabotaged their campaign saying ‘They kept us off stages, manipulated polls, sued us in every possible state, and even planted insiders in our campaign.’

    https://x.com/Geiger_Capital/status/1825966620482683084

    So it looks like perfect payback on RFK’s part to announce this now and take the wind out of Kamala’s sails with her big “win”. Proof is that even here on NC, Lambert dumped his analysis of Kamala’s speech – which would probably have been a waste of his time anyway – and is now concentrating on RFK’s more important speech. I despise RFK’s non-take on Gaza but he did a good job here spiking Kamala’s Big Moment.

  27. Pat

    The Democrats have wiped both Jill Stein and RFK Jr from the ballot in NY. At the moment AFAIK the only third party candidate will be Kamala Harris. No that isn’t a joke, the supposed third party known as Working Families Party has qualified and they embraced Harris when Biden dropped out. Cuomo kneecapped them awhile ago and they have been a Democratic surrogate party ever since. We’ll see if the libertarians make it.
    That leaves me with write in and Trump. Harris is not even a consideration. Since I recently watched write in votes being essentially trashed in the primaries, write in isn’t feeling too viable to me at that moment. I once said I would never vote for Trump. I’ve also said that Americans should vote third party this year. I know now that isn’t even possible. The Democratic Party has actually been effective in eliminating that as even a remote possibility by using every legal and illegal method they can to close ballot access. Add to that that if they aren’t counted, Write in voting is a protest as effective as leaving the ballot line empty. It might get noticed historically but in general is nothing more than a mild annoyance to our oligarch owned parties. And staying home is also no threat. Disruptive voting may be all that is left.
    I never thought I would be seriously considering voting for a Republican much less Trump. That the Democratic Party has become the corrupt infectious cancerous swamp redolent of fascism that it has makes it not just a possibility but likely.

    1. Tom Doak

      If you vote for Kamala as the WFP candidate, does that add to her D total in NY?

      Not that NY is contested, I’m just curious.

      1. hk

        I wondered the same. Just for sake of argument, if DTJ wins 48% of tbe votes, Kamala the Dem 45%, and Kamala the WFP gets 7%, who wins the election? If it’s DJT, I wonder if the protest voters in NY could conceivably vote for Harris to keep her from winning.

        1. Pat

          Nope. Based on the past, the WFP vote is just added to the candidate’s final total. A vote for Harris on the WFP ballot line is just another vote for Harris. If they had the stones to have nominated Stein (and the Green Party had managed to be on the ballot) both sets of votes would have counted for Stein. The Libertarian Party often has the Republican candidate on their ballot line and then it counts for them.
          In reality the only thing that voting for her on the WFP line does is keep that party on the ballot if there are enough votes for that party. That was the sword Cuomo held over their heads during his reelection campaign, they needed his numbers to be guaranteed to stay on the ballot for the next election but he needed them to fall in line (his rewrite of their platform was devastating.)They have essentially been a Democratic front ever since.

      2. Big River Bandido

        Former New Yorker here. Yes it does. New York State law allows vote counts from such tickets to be added to the candidate’s total from other parties. This is why the WFP is just a sheepdog operation.

    2. Big River Bandido

      The Working Families Party was always a Democrat front, long before Cuomo. Even the name is PMC-pathetic blather. (“Working Familes” lol)

      1. Pat

        I agree for the most part, but they did start clearly feeling their oats during his administration, he was so disliked by the membership. This led to the leadership vs membership divide becoming obvious after they endorsed Sanders and yes, Cynthia Nixon rather than Cuomo. It was after Nixon’s challenge failed that Cuomo pulled the reins hard got the platform changes and then there are rumors that the leadership overrode the membership to endorse Warren during the 2020 primaries rather than Sanders. Mind you Cuomo was also working legislatively to make ballot access even more difficult during this same period. IOW, they are another good example that they will close avenues of change even from supposed allies.

  28. ChrisFromGA

    RFK Jr.’s biggest influence on the election could be to bring the voters’ attention back to that 64% that believe we’re on the wrong track. And change the tone from “whistling past the graveyard” joy to realism.

    The corrupt elites that control the Democratic (and Republican) parties want to make this about Obama’s third term. “Just forget about the past four years, the inflation, the 40k dead in Gaza, the 500k dead in Ukraine, entire cities razed and turned into rubble as in WWII. Not to mention the 1.2M dead from COVID that still haven’t been accounted for. Let’s all laugh our way to prosperity, and ride those A-bombs like Dr. Strangelove!!”

    Trump has been awfully slow to recognize that he has a huge issue in his favor – the specter of thousands of body bags coming back home, not to mention nuclear war. Harris does not even matter. It is the warmongers behind her. She has no agency to change anything. She’s Mr. Smith in the Matrix. She’s inevitable, because she’s inevitable.

    Today at his speech in AZ I heard RFK Jr. say we must get rid of the neocons. Of course, this means total war, but just speaking their name is the beginning of wisdom.

    Every stump speech from now ’til November, Trump and RFK Jr. should look the American people in the eyes and tell them that another four years of Democrat rule will mean their sons and daughters die.

    1. ChrisFromGA

      To add to or maybe try to sum it up the above with more soul and brevity, the biggest threat to the Dems posed by RFK Jr. is that he might remind some voters of what the Dems used to be, who they stood for, and what they are now.

      A party that stands for war, censorship, big tech, big Ag poisoning our food, and big pharma poisoning our bodies.

      It’s one thing to hear that from Trump, Rand Paul, or Tulsi Gabbard. It is quite another to hear it from a Kennedy.

      1. hk

        Yes. I don’t think the real trouble for the Dems nowadays is Trunp, but themselves. Trump is a complicated opponent for them, some yo thdir advantage, some to their disadvsntage. But the truth is that many people are drawn to Trump or the likes of him because they are sick and tired of the status quo. This isn’t the first time in this century either (not counting 2016): remember 2008. Pretty much the same impetus behind pretty sizable chunk of Obama votes. The thing about Trump is that he may be forcing a fundamental change in the GOP that Obama didn’t and Sanders couldn’t in the Dem Party. We don’t know if it’ll hold, but a migration of ex Dem voters into the GOP might be exactly what makes things happen. I’m tired of politics as usual that I’d rather gamble on tbe chance of change (again), speaking for myself.

    2. code_jockey

      “ride those A-bombs like Dr. Strangelove!”

      Major Kong rode the H-bomb down. Strangelove was the Kissinger-like character in the wheelchair in the war room.

  29. Googoogajoob

    I’ll speak to 5) – what I found so offputting about RFK was that it would seem like his presence in the race was to bleed Democratic votes but over time it was shown he’d be hurting Trump even more. Once it became evident he was dead in the water (his VP pick being a large tell), he’s then is going to each party to see if they’ll provide him with some kind of appointment in exchange for an endorsement? Does this sound like someone that has the strength of their convictions behind them or just a person willing to be a useful idiot? At the risk of a poor analogy, you think Ross Perot would have sold his endorsement out to the highest bidder as a strong 3rd party option?

    Like it or not, the whole ‘weird’ narrative with Trump is getting another coat of paint here with RFK’s endorsement as well. The oppo that came out on RFK has been just brutal and he does not posses the charisma to push through those things.

    Another source of cynicism here with the endorsement of Trump is how much of what’s he’s campaigned on is never going to addressed by a Trump admin. The concerns with the food system? No shot. Vaccine skepticism even though Trump takes great pride in his part in getting them developed quickiy? I’d be willing to put a marker down that if Trump has promised him anything, it’s dead in the water day 1 should Trump win. Exactly what leverage does he have?

    As s side note, I am rather struck by the complaints about the Democratic party sabotaging their campaign by his VP. I am quite frankly unsympathetic to this whining – it’s the Democrats and you know who they are. If you sat back thinking they would play nice from day one I can only think of you being a chump. This is the same problem Sanders ran into in 2016 and despite that experience he let the tide roll in on him again in 2020. Quit complaining to a set of referees that do not exist and actually build some resiliency into your campaign.

    1. Pat

      Sorry, but I want it shouted from the rooftops that the Democrats are rabidly undemocratic and happily cheat and connive to win. To me it isn’t whining. It is a demand that they play by the rules they loudly require of everyone else.

  30. MicaT

    My centrist dem friends are loving throwing RFK under the bus.

    But to my way of thinking, the Dems just threw away millions of votes by not embracing him.
    Way to think ahead.

  31. Paul Art

    Just wanted to say bye to all of NC. Won’t be returning. I recently discovered that my comments are being initially approved and appear but are later deleted. Not acceptable. Good bye and family blog you Lambert you pompous twit.

    1. Afro

      You are validating the moderation that you allege Lambert is engaging in with your petulant and ultimately uninteresting post.

    2. Citizenguy

      Though I don’t recall ever seeing one of your posts, I’ll never forget the cinema veritas that was Paul Art: Mall Cop and Paul Art: Mall Cop 2. You defined a generation. Thank you for your service.

    3. hk

      There’s something weird with the comment system, besides the quirky moderation issues. I foumd that my comments show up on the machine where I posted it, but not on another all the time. Sometimes, they appear later. Sometimes, they don’t. Personally, I came to accept it as a peculiar quirk, not some ill intent by the hosts. For me, personally, neither arguing with people or making sure people see what I’m saying is all that important–my opinions, generally, aren’t so important so that it’d be tragic if they are lost to the ether.

      While I suspect you might be different in this regard, the point of the site is so that we can read interesting viewpoints so we can think, not show people how great we are. If you don’t find the information here useful and resent people not seeing your brilliance and falling prostrate, maybe it is best if you don’t stay.

      1. SocalJimObjects

        This is my guess to what’s going on. The NC website operates on what’s known as the multiple readers, single writer architecture. In other words, every single comment will go to a single server but reads can be served by multiple servers and not necessarily by the server mainly responsible for processing writes.

        Imagine there are 2 servers, A and B with A responsible for handling reads and writes while B is just responsible for handling reads, when a write goes to A, it can take some time before B gets to see what’s been written because of network lags, etc. By the way this is a very common architecture in distributed systems, although the lag I’ve seen here suggests that NC is not exactly running on top of the line environment, which is not a criticism more of an observation.

        So why not adopt a multiple writers architecture? Because of the possibility of write conflicts. If you write two slightly different comments back to back, and one of them goes to A, and the other one goes to B, which comment should be displayed back to the user?

        1. hk

          The great thing about NC: you run into people who know interesting stuff you never even thought much about all the time! :). Thanks for helping make sense of the comment mysteries!

        2. Lambert Strether Post author

          > Imagine there are 2 servers, A and B

          We use CloudFlare so presumably there are lags. Frankly, we’ve had behavior like this for years. I chalk it up to “Strange things happen at sea” and “The Internet is a hostile computing environment.”

          1. SocalJimObjects

            I should have been clearer on that, but the lag appears to be on the database replication on the back end and not on users connecting to the servers. Cloudflare provides a bunch of services like DDos protection etc and those are deployed in front of the servers, so you won’t be seeing those again once you’ve gotten to the servers. Yes those services add some lag, but it’s very minimal nowadays because the code will be highly optimized.

            Perhaps there’s some knobs that NC can turn to make the database replication run more frequently? Anyway, it does not bother me because I can surmise what’s going on, but it might bother other people.

            1. SocalJimObjects

              Not sure if this is going to be more confusing, but let’s give it a try. Let’s say you are working on a couple of files on your local computer and those get automatically synced/replicated to the cloud; people connecting to the cloud will only be able to see everything that the cloud has received from your computer, so if the cloud has not seen file some_documents.doc (although the file does exist in your computer), then users connecting to the cloud will not be able to see it as well although they can if they connected directly to your computer. Now substitute files for comments, and you’ll probably get the picture.

              Because of the nature of the beast, some lag will be inevitable, there’s just no way to write the same content to more than one place and have them be in sync instantaneously, all you can do is to sync/replicate more aggressively at the cost of more network traffic (not sure if this comes at an additional cost inside a data center).

    4. Yves Smith

      You are mistaken and owe Lambert an apology. Your comment was removed by another moderator, not Lambert. And it was so long and rambling, one very very very very very long paragraph with eccentric capitalizations, that it looked like spam.

      Second, we have MANY highly valued commentors who sometimes do not have a comment approved, and they do not flounce off in anger over it.

      ****

      Update: You REALLY owe us an apoplogy. This from the moderator in question:

      I approved the comment but trashed a duplicate. The approved comment is up under the DNC Fiddles post.

      1. Tom Pfotzer

        Yves:

        This is my first post in quite some time.

        I speak up now because I grew tired of investing a great deal of effort writing high quality posts (my opinion, of course) that just evaporated. If I tried to re-post, that evaporated also, or I got “you’ve re-posted the same thing twice” and then … neither the original nor the duplicate showed up. I tried two other browsers, same result.

        After a bout (several, over a period of weeks) of those sort of experiences, I assumed you were telling me to get lost, so I did. It wasn’t a flounce, or a screen-door-slam, just a “is this time well-spent?” decision.

        I do love the NC community, tho, and it’s tough to resist reading what they say.

        But I won’t spend a lot of time posting here, this post notwithstanding. There are too many other uses for that time.

        ==== An interesting aside: the timestamp on the post I’m about to submit is Aug 24, 8131 at 5:24PM. People in the far-future will be, no doubt, very interested in what I have to say.

        I believe that the posting timestamp is generated by the NC servers, and not my browser.

        :)

        1. Lambert Strether Post author

          > I believe that the posting timestamp is generated by the NC servers, and not my browser.

          Yes, of course.

          You’re not on any list and your email doesn’t show up in my email (which goes back like twenty years). We’re moderated. Deal with it. Serious, dedicated, and budgeted moderation is the reason the NC comment section hasn’t turned into a cesspit, like so many other sites, and especially social media.

          1. Tom Pfotzer

            Lambert: I’m not sure what you mean by:

            You’re not on any list and your email doesn’t show up in my email (which goes back like twenty years).

            .

            I’m saying that posting is hit-and-miss, and it’s not just me that notices it, and that the degree of “missing” causes the participation value proposition to degrade.

            I understand your budget limits, and I’ve contributed (for me, at my paygrade) a lot to NC over the years.

            So I don’t feel that your dismissive attitude (“deal with it”) is merited.

  32. MarkT

    The USA is a country run by corporations. Who control the narrative, and exploit. Loved the Guardian piece about children being schooled in China. Focus on the community, and common good.

  33. Jason Boxman

    On Kennedy and chronic disease, determinants of health. People are ground down by the exploitative extractive capitalist system in America. If he wants to tackle chronic disease, and it sounds like he actually does, then we also need to focus on a living wage, a system that isn’t violently exploitative of the working class. That certainly wasn’t on the menu under the last Trump administration, and I’d be surprised if it will be in a future Trump or Kamala administration, sadly.

    Kind of bizarre to be aware of the facts of chronic disease, and completely miss the boat on the ongoing SARS-CoV-2 Pandemic.

    He talks about mental health, too. Goes back to determinants of health, and our exploitative system. He mentions ultra processed foods. Which, good, that stuff is simply poison, sold specifically to enrich Big Food. Has no societal value. Full stop. Mentions environmental poisons. Good. Also true.

    Nothing about neoliberal fundamentalist capitalism, and social atomization, and lack of purpose or any future in America. Not sure how you effectively tackle this with a slightly adjusted capitalist system.

    1. ChrisFromGA

      Our financial parasites have created an environment that is detrimental to mental health. It’s become a “winner takes all” game. One of the saddest things I saw after the pandemic was teachers quitting to become corporate tools.

      Opting out is your best bet. If you can pull it off.

  34. JerryDenim

    I suspected this was exactly how his campaign would end all along. His overall vibe- baby-boomer, privileged scion of famous family, rich white-guy, macho, libertarian, anti-vax, attention-seeking, permanently-contrarian edgelord made him a natural fit for the MAGA bandwagon. He makes some great points, generally champions good issues, and has a very impressive legacy of environmental legal work with the Sierra Club, but its hard to take him serious with his promotion of very un-serious conspiracy theories and occasional quackery.

    RFK Jr’s uncle, JFK, was nominated to be the Democratic Candidate for President under the old smokey room format. I think only a handful of states had primaries in 1960 and they were in no way binding. I don’t like the way Kamala got the nomination, but Primaries were not really an official mechanism for choosing presidential candidates from George Washington to 1972. While I’m on the topic, I didn’t like the way Hillary got it or Biden either. They shived Bernie- TWICE! “I woulda won” is a BOLD claim. Especially given the colossal amount of “brutal” dirt that “Googoogajoob” mentioned earlier. That “oppo” or “dirt” makes him a total pariah in today’s Democratic circles despite his royal name. No elected official with a “D” beside their name would touch him with a ten foot pole. Crying about ballot access like he’s discovered a new injustice seems lame. Did he ever hear of Ralph Nader? I mean he’s gotta point of course, but it’s not like Trump is some paragon of Democracy and open society. Did RFK watch the run-up to January 6th or pay attention to how the Republicans attempted to cut their primaries short to aid Trump’s coronation?

    Pretending Trump has the ability to be anything other than an ADHD, graft-motivated, narcissistic chaos agent is another strike against Kennedy. Trump is an actual convicted felon and attempted usurper of elections with very strong autocratic tendencies. The Christian Taliban is also riding his coat tails. Endorsing a historically terrible and lawless candidate for chief executive is further proof of Kennedy’s poor judgement, insanity perhaps or maybe just a show of how craven he is. If RF Kennedy really wants to change the US industrial food system why not make Trump publicly announce him as his pending Secretary of Agriculture in exchange for his endorsement? I’m not buying it. I think this guy loves Trump, hates Democrats and is willing to burn the country down for revenge. I doubt he’ll extract anything of value for his endorsement. Hopefully the country will not get to find out.

    Regarding foreign policy, peace in Ukraine would be grand, carve the place up, I don’t care, even if NATO is chuffed and Putin is elated, but let’s not pretend Trump wouldn’t be 100 times more hawkish and generous with the bloodthirsty, fundamentalist crazies running Israel than KH. Trump may want peace with Russia but he is super keen to have a big war with Iran which could easily spiral into WW3 just like the conflict in Ukraine. Trump is far from a Dove, and his foreign policy is not anywhere near good enough to cancel out his other horrible policies and characteristics. I’m not a huge fan of Madame hopey-dopey Obama 2.0, but at this point she sounds far better than letting Trump back in the White House. K-hive can be voted out in four years, if Trump makes it back, he will not be leaving alive.

    Whatever respect I had for Kennedy is gone. His family was right. He’s an asshole.

    1. divadab

      I guess the machine Dems are quite concerned considering the hysterical tone of your screed of cognitive dissonance.

      1. Lambert Strether Post author

        > October surprise: They come out and confirm what Schumer/Rounds amendment (and subsequent proposed bills) clearly hints at.

        So, election cancelled because of an alien invasion?

        1. ambrit

          My admittedly “out there” theory; election cancelled by Aliens taking over the Internet, (which also, if I remember correctly, ‘carries’ the electronic vote totals from ‘place’ to ‘place.’) As to who or what these “Aliens” are…..

    2. Mark Gisleson

      Watched all of Taibbi and Kirn (despite shutting them off repeatedly during the DNC). This is a topic they have some passion for and Kirn, when he’s either done his homework or is knowledgable, is at his best.

  36. bayoustjohndavid

    If Kennedy really thinks that Trump is going to give him the power to make America’s children healthy, he’s convinced himself to believe something preposterous in order to justify an otherwise indefensible action.

    To be clear, I think it would have been indefensible for him to endorse (or semi-endorse) either Trump or Harris. Supreme Court nominees will never again be enough to make me vote for a corporate Democrat, but they sure as hell would be enough to keep me from endorsing any Repubs if I had fame & influence.For somebody who made a name for himself fighting water pollution to endorse the party of the Sackett decision takes some explaining.

    Explaining that Trump’s going to make him Food Czar, or something, with the power to make our children healthy is laughable. If he really believes that, his ego overrules any common sense he might possess.

    The Democrats anti-Democratic actions are one of the many reasons that I won’t be voting this Fall,* and I understand that it’s personal for Kennedy. But that’s why it’s hard for me to see Kennedy’s actions as motivated by anything other than a desire for revenge, even if he tells himself it’s about making America healthy.

    *I won’t bother voting for Jill Stein if she gets on the Louisiana ballot.

    1. Lambert Strether Post author

      > Supreme Court nominees will never again be enough to make me vote for a corporate Democrat, but they sure as hell would be enough to keep me from endorsing any Repubs if I had fame & influence.For somebody who made a name for himself fighting water pollution to endorse the party of the Sackett decision takes some explaining.

      First, AFAIK, the Sackett decision was unanimous, so I don’t see how only the Republicans can be blamed for it. Is this another talking point that has somehow migrated over there?

      More centrally, if the Democrats had fought those Federalist Society judges tooth and nail at every nomination, instead of waving them on up the escalator to the Supreme Court, the courts might look every different. Reminds me of this story from Gravity’s Rainbow:

      Remember the story about the kid who hates kreplach? Hates and fears the dish, breaks out in these horrible green hives that shift in relief maps all across his body, in the mere presence of kreplach. Kid’s mother takes him to the psychiatrist. “Fear of the unknown,” diagnoses this gray eminence, “let him watch you making the kreplach, that’ll ease him into it.” Home to Mother’s kitchen. “Now,” sez Mother, “I’m going to make us a delicious surprise!” “Oh, boy!” cries the kid, “that’s keen, Mom!” “See, now I’m sifting the flour and salt into a nice little pile.” “What’s that, Mom, hamburger? oh, boy!” “Hamburger, and onions. I’m frying them here, see, in this frying pan.” “Making a little volcano in the flour here, and breaking these eggs into it.” “Can I help ya mix it up? Oh, boy!” “Now, I’m going to roll the dough out, see? into a nice flat sheet, now I’m cutting it up into squares-” “This is terrif, Mom!” “Now I spoon some of the hamburger into this little square, and now I fold it over into a tri-” “GAAHHHH!” screams the kid, in absolute terror-“kreplach!”

      The Democrats watched and accepted every step of the process. Now they hate the result.

      1. Pat

        In most cases I think it is more accurately “CLAIM to hate the result.” For the most part they are just fine with it, as can be seen by their rarely if ever seeking to address the decisions with legislative remedies.

  37. JerryDenim

    “For somebody who made a name for himself fighting water pollution to endorse the party of the Sackett decision takes some explaining.”

    OMG, yes! Thank you. Exactly! I’ve lost all respect for him.

    There seems to be a general theme in the comments, that people can’t seem to understand the cure for Democrat evil is not unbridled Republican evil. I frequently vote third party and shrug at the choice between a corporatist Dem and a Republican, but Trump really is a more dangerous animal than we usually see here, and the electorate is especially dangerous after years of misrule, declining standards of living, collapsing empire and every billionaire or state actor with an agenda is running their own social media psych-op these days. Fraught times.

    1. Yves Smith

      This is completely Making Shit Up. Sackett was a UNANIMOUS Scotus decision. It is false to depict this as Team R cooking when all Dems on the court concurred.

      You have been veering more and more into Making Shit Up. You are already in moderation for past offense. I suggest you exercise more care.

      1. JerryDenim

        Not sure if this was for me or the original poster I quoted. Strikes me as selective nit picking. Sackett being unanimous or not, I think it’s extremely fair to say Donald Trump nor his judicial appointees are known as environmentalists. This is not making shit up. There’s mountains of decisions and reportage to back this up. The broader point is RFK’s endorsement is going to be seen by the majority of environmentalists as a betrayal of his past environmental work. If this is worthy of a ban so be it. The site rules are enforced very selectively from what I’ve seen. Like Michael Tracy or the RFK campaign this site is slowly turning into a Trump apologetics operation.

        https://afj.org/why-courts-matter/trump-judges-on-the-issues/trump-judges-on-the-environment/

        1. Yves Smith

          We care about information integrity here and are tough on readers who pass on bogus factoids. If you have been at all paying attention, this should not be a surprise.

          It indeed would not have been hard to find Trump executive orders or regulatory changes made on his regime that were environmentally unfriendly, but that is not the point. The overriding mission of this site is to promote critical thinking. That requires being rigorous about facts, among other things.

          Scotus decisions, on the other hand, are the result of decades of the Republicans, way before Trump, packing the Federal bench with conservative appointees….which the Dems nearly always joined in approving.

      2. bayoustjohndavid

        Have I fallen for Team D B.S., or are you oversimplifying? I wondered if someone would say that Sackett was unanimous and whether it would be proper to call BS. But it’s possible that I’m the one who’s fallen for BS.

        My understanding is that even though the ruling was 9-0 in favor of the Sacketts, the real damage was in the rationale, on which the court split 5-4.

        I also want to reemphasize, some people think they have the responsibility to vote even in a “Sophie’s Choice” election. I disagree, but don’t condemn “hold your nose” voters. I do think it’s right to condemn endorsements in such situations.

        The analogy that I would make for Kennedy would be to Rob Couhig (or Virginia Boulet). Sorry to go back to a local election almost 20 years ago, but it’s the best analogy I could come up with. In the 2006 New Orleans mayoral election, Rob Couhig campaigned against Nagin but came in third in the primary, but endorsed Nagin in the runoff. He apparently hated Landrieu more, and Nagin promised him a position with real authority in a second term (Something similar happened with Boulet). Nagin gave them both high ranking positions when he was reelected, but but continued to waste money on corrupt and/or stupid shit when the city couldn’t afford basic services or needed recovery projects. Boulet saw what was going on and left the Nagin Admin pretty quickly. Couhig seemed to blame the recovery czar that Nagin brought in for his inability to make Nagin’s second term better, stayed in office, and whined about Ed Blakely — the con artist recovery Czar.

        If Trump is elected (and if he even gives Kennedy a position), will Kennedy have the grace and dignity to get out early, or will serve ineffectually while finding his own Ed Blakely’s to whine about.

        1. Yves Smith

          I just spoke to an attorney who is a lifelong Dem who lost his respect for Scotus when O”Connor left. He begs to differ with you on your argument about the split on the rationale mattering for this ruling. He says the reason the split matters is not this decision but a potential future case with somewhat different facts focused on the issue at the heart of the rationale, where the vote could be different overall due to different facts and a different court take. He says the split on the rationale matters not an iota for this ruling qua ruling.

          In addition, the bigger point is this was a frigging court decision. Trump controlled the executive, not the courts. Congress approves Scotus picks, FFS. Trying to use this ruling as the bloody flag for criticizing Trump on his environmental stance is flat out bad faith argumentation. There was PLENTY of environment-protection-unfriendly action from the Trump Administration. Why do you feel compelled to defend this lame argument rather than bang on about on-point evidence?

          And Scotus was designed to be reactionary. The premise was a liberal legislature and a conservative court as a check. That got flipped in the Warren Court and the damage got compounded (Roe is the textbook example) where Congress punted and relied on the court to serve as a liberal bastion.

        2. Lambert Strether Post author

          > The analogy that I would make for Kennedy would be to Rob Couhig (or Virginia Boulet).

          I understand this argument and have what I believe is an even more on point Louisiana parable–

          Legendarily corrupt D Edwin Edwards (“The only way I can lose this election is if I’m caught in bed with either a dead girl or a live boy”) was running against R David Duke, a former KKK Grand Wizards. The Ds ran and won on slogans like “Vote for the Lizard, not the Wizard” and “Vote for the Crook. It’s important!”

          That’s a fine example of lesser evilism. But what do you do when there are two lizards? Or two candidates, each caught in bed with dead girls? A Sophie’s choice, there.

          NOTE * “Whine” seems to be creeping into the discussion of Kennedy’s summary of Democrat actions this election. Seems like odd, bullying language for a party so averse to micro-aggression, and so in favor of “all the people.”

          1. hk

            I think one was caught with a dead girl and the other with a live boy, and the latter is calling the former a bigot. ;p

          2. bayoustjohndavid

            Just saw your response, Lambert. I agree with you about the use of the word “whining.”
            I didn’t mean to criticize Kennedy for “whining” now, but to predict that he will end up whining (a lot) if he actually gets a position in a Trump administration. I think it’s always wrong to dismiss a complaint as “whining” until you’ve answered the complaint. I do think complaining about lying in the bed you made is whining, which is what Couhig did and what I can see happening with Kennedy in a Trump admin. Now that I think about it, I think he’ll end up being nicknamed something like “Skinny Chris Christie” if he actually ends up in a Trump admin.

            I certainly don’t hate Kennedy for going against the Dem establishment (I was a Sanders supporter), but I don’t think there’s a chance in hell he’s going to be able to do anything to make our food healthier in a Trump Administration. Don’t think he’d be able to in a Harris admin either. But that’s just speculation and not a point I’d fight about.

    2. Lambert Strether Post author

      > “I’ve lost all respect”

      I’m not a big fan of that trope, because generally the person using it didn’t have a great deal of respect for the person now disrespected in the first place. (Flashback from the Bush Era: “I loved Krugman when he wrote about economics, but now that he’s writing about politics I’ve lost all respect for him.”

      That said, and speaking in my capacity as a possible voter, and not in my capacity as an appreciator of the tecbnical virtues of political campaigns, I see this election as a true Sophie’s Choice: “an extremely difficult decision a person has to make. It describes a situation where no outcome is preferable over the other.” Biden’s “let ‘er rip” Covid policies led to the deaths of a several hundred thousand people at least, and the social norming of continuous reinfection — especially of our own children! — will lead to the deaths of thousands more. Trump has exceptionally nasty views on environmental matters, and seems bent on dismantling the Federal government as we know it (if half the stuff in Project 2025 is true). It’s not easy to weigh those two in the balance. There comes a time when “lesser evilism” doesn’t work because the evils on each side are too great, like weigh I believe this is one of those times. Therefore, I do not accept the frame of “evil” vs. “unbridled evil.” Neither evil is bridled.*

      NOTE * To your point that Trump is a “dangerous animal,” I would respond that the Democrats are a dangerous “circle” (see here for what I mean). Just because Democat Party’s decision-making process is far less invidualistic, and far more indirect and opaque, does not mean it’s not dangerous, although the danger may be harder to see (coming up as a child where college administration was discussed at the dinner table, I am naturally keenly sensitive here).

      1. JerryDenim

        Agreed on the Sophie’s Choice. Good luck to us all. I have a bad feeling about Kamala, but a much worse feeling about Trump. He’s shown us who he is already. Aside from his war mongering, not prosecuting Trump when he had the chance, and his Covid policies, Biden’s domestic policy was much better than expected. He made some truly progressive appointments. Maybe Harris could have a pleasant surprise up her sleeve as well?

        Farewell Lambert, it seems my time here is up.

        1. Big River Bandido

          I’ve never seen you here before, and since I didn’t learn anything from your comments today, I don’t think I’ll miss them.

          1. divadab

            A dem party activist, whether paid or unpaid, it appears to me. Trying to make a silk purse out of a sow’s ear. No argument, only ad hominem. Typical Dem stuff. Cognitive dissonance personified.

      3. Vodkatom

        Sophie’s Choice is a great analogy. I get the sense many of the comments here are along these lines – this all sucks, but one issue among many tips the scale on way or the other. And maybe it comes down the what people feel the most. All politics is local it’s been said.

        For me Gaza is paramount. It’s hard to say who will be worse for the Palestinians. It’s a vague calculus of who might even be capable of changing course as it gets uglier than it already is.

        But politics is local. I’m in Portland, Oregon and the Trump years were bad for this city – being Trump’s poster child for the all that is wrong with “liberal cities” is unpleasant. His heated rhetoric helped nothing here. Certainly sending in the Border Patrol didn’t help either. Tourism and other parts of the economy have been slow to recover compared to most west coast cities. I attribute much the lag to the Trump effect. I still hear online people who think we burned to the ground or something. This hurts my livelihood.

        I’ll vote Jill Stein, but I want Trump to lose ‘cause I think it will set my local economy back a few years. It’s Oregon, I don’t think Trump has a chance of winning here so my vote won’t matter. Yet I see Trump as a potential tool to knock down the Dems, and though he’s awful maybe that would open a path to the change we need.

        Awful choices all around.

        1. JonnyJames

          It won’t make damn bit of difference, just like last time, and the time before that…
          The US is on a downward trajectory and nothing can stop that now: the corruption is too deep-seated and formalized. The vast majority of the population are stricken with Collective Stockholm Syndrome and Medieval Peasant Syndrome and there is no way to “vote” against genocide and the Washington Consensus. I advise young people to go abroad and leave the US. I lived abroad for years, and will leave again. Two of my best friends have left the country and enjoy much better quality of life. There is no utopia, but the US is a toxic cesspool of misinformation, ignorance, and corruption, it’s not good for mental health to live here.

  38. The Rev Kev

    ‘Kerry Kennedy
    @KerryKennedyRFK
    I am sharing a personal statement that my family and I have made in response to my brother’s announcement.’

    Thanksgiving is going to be very awkward at the Kennedy mansion this year.

    1. hk

      This wouldn’t be the first time: The Arnold was a Kennedy by marriage (his ex wife, Maria Shriver, being the daughter of Eunice, formerly Kennedy, and sister to JFK and RFK Sr., and was usually treated as a member of the family, apparently.) Otoh, Trump is not the Arnold kind of Republican, I suppose.

      1. Mark Gisleson

        Just piling on here.

        The Kennedy clan has an obvious aversion to politics in the wake of two assassinations. RFK Jr, however, is not the most political Kennedy. Kathleen Kennedy Townshend is.

        Hollywood is Ground Zero for neoliberal politics and Townshend is a major player. For her to be the lead signature in that family dolschstoss memo strongly suggests that Townshend’s minders put the screws to her everytime RFK Jr. becomes a problem. The Kennedys are not the Bushs, there is no family political zeitgeist left. RFK Jr and KKT aside, there are no players left in the family.

        RFK Jr has admitted (in so many words) to minder problems. His explanation for his Israel stance was gibberish and he sounds like a sockpuppet every time he talks about it. To be a Kennedy is to have minders.

        I’ve met two of the other signers but when they were teens on the campaign trail. So far as I’ve been able to track over the years, RFK Jr.’s siblings function politically much like Chelsea Clinton does.

        The family memo is frankly a positive. As a family, the Kennedys are ‘old money’ out of touch. Their mother was never political, screws up basic facts on rare occasions when she speaks in public. This is at least the second time I’m aware of that they’ve distanced themselves from RFK Jr. They don’t have the anti-RFK Jr. cred they think they have. KKT is a very powerful person but only to folks in Hollywood.

        RFK Jr., however flawed (and we’ll soon know more than we’d like on that front) is the best of the lot. I cannot name another member of that family who would be better in public office.

        Five of his eleven siblings, btw, agreed with him about Sirhan Sirhan’s innocence. A family divided by tragedy and avoidance.

  39. zach

    Wowza just watched the Joonyah cameo at Trumps rally, not a ton of natural chemistry between the two. Politics makes strange bedfellows and all that but by the look of things he’s got more of his daddy in him than either of his uncles. A reprisal of RFK v. LBJ, ultraprocessed and repackaged for the youth audience, manufactured on equipment that processes nuts and other allergens.

    I wonder how the Proud Boys feel about getting dumped for a Kennedy. I don’t ingest very much Trump, doc says it’s bad for my heart condition, but it seemed like he was even gloatier than usual.

    1. Lambert Strether Post author

      > not a ton of natural chemistry between the two

      Good data, the campaign needs to figure it out and, to be fair, so do the candidates (they both do tend to “ramble,” don’t they, albeit in different ways*). The JFK/LBJ comparison is a good one in that regard. I’m also trying to think if either of them have natural chemistry with anyone, and I’m hard pressed to come up with an example.

      * I think Democrats optimize their rhetoric for their stenographers, and so naturally the stenographers get miffed and start throwing adjectives around when somebody else doesn’t cater to them. So it’s a virtuous cycle…

      Adding, I don’t think the Proud Boys — riddled with FBI informants though they are — and RFK are necessarily incompatible. Why can’t the Republican Party be a “big tent” MR SUBLIMINAL Ha ha ha!!

      1. Mark Gisleson

        Republican moderates switched parties when Trump ran and turned the Democratic party into a neolib/con cess pool.

        Libertarian leaning Democrats switching to the Republican party could realign and bring balance to both parties. Traditionally the GOP is isolationist and, defense aside, better at staying within the budget. Racism and neocons have been their downfall but racism only thrives when no one in the room objects. An influx of lefties and black voters could flip the Republicans on racial issues almost overnight.

        I don’t want to switch parties, but I don’t want to go back to the Democrats. Objectively I think that cleaning the Augean stables (taking over the Republican party) sounds easier than going the Samson route and pulling down the entire temple (retaking the Democrat party).

        To avoid a future so bright shades won’t stop you from crisping into radioactive ash, we have to either fix the duopoly or break the system. I think the world would prefer a more cautious approach and right now that seems to be a Trump led Republican party with added populism.

        1. Lambert Strether Post author

          > Republican moderates switched parties when Trump ran and turned the Democratic party into a neolib/con cess pool.

          It already was, but they added some special flavors and scents of chunkage all their own.

        2. steppenwolf fetchit

          It was the DLC/ Hamilton Project/ From/Boren/Clinton types and groups who brought the neolib cess to the neolib/con cess pool. And they began working on that decades ago.

  40. Victor Sciamarelli

    I marvel at how sincere and perfectly composed is the letter from Kerry Kennedy. It takes sustained exercise to develop the skills to write so beautifully and say absolutely nothing.
    Kennedy writes of hope, bound together, a brighter future, a future defined by individual freedom, economic promise, and national pride. Thus, incomprehensibly, family member RFK Jr betrayed their values.
    Yet, nothing was written about access to healthcare, a living wage, healthy food, environmental protections, and eliminating corporate capture of the regulatory agencies, and many other issues RFK Jr addressed directly. I guess there is not enough room in Ms Kennedy’s future for such things.
    RFK Jr was only half right. Both the DP and the Kennedy clan are not what they once were.

    1. Lambert Strether Post author

      > values

      These are not values. They’re highly polished symbols and signals, much like the logos on a Formula One car, or the patches on an athlete’s uniform. In reality, nobody who supports “individual freedom” can possibly support the Censorship Industrial Complex. (One might also argue that nobody who wants to Make America Great again could be allowed to decapitate the Civil Service, but that is not the material at issue here.)

      1. Mark Gisleson

        Kerry and Courtney were the two daughters Ethel Kennedy took with her on the surrogate stump in 1980 (which was a long time ago!). I do, however, remember vividly one meal where the two teenagers spent a lot of time talking about a simple gold chain necklace that in block letters spelled out the word “love.” A gift from Aunt Jackie.

        All I saw was a lot of gold around Kerry’s neck but it was a vivid reminder (and one of very few such moments) when it was made obvious that their family was very much removed from mine.

        I had assumed that the magic had dissipated (Joe Jr has some, Patrick a smidgeon) but then I saw the Trump crowd’s reaction to RFK Jr. joining Trump on stage. There were a lot of JFK Democrats in that arena (just like there are a lot of Bush Republicans cheering on Harris).

  41. Lambert Strether Post author

    > not a ton of natural chemistry between the two

    Good data, the campaign needs to figure it out and, to be fair, so do the candidates (they both do tend to “ramble,” don’t they, albeit in different ways*). The JFK/LBJ comparison is a good one in that regard. I’m also trying to think if either of them have natural chemistry with anyone, and I’m hard pressed to come up with an example.

    * I think Democrats optimize their rhetoric for their stenographers, and so naturally the stenographers get miffed and start throwing adjectives around when somebody else doesn’t cater to them. So it’s a virtuous cycle…

  42. MFB

    I’m not really surprised by all this, perhaps because I’m not wildly well-informed about US political parties. But my impression has always been that established Democratic operatives really hated Kennedy very strongly.

    Either they know something that we don’t know about their level of support, and they know they could afford to kick Kennedy out, or they are very stupid and arrogant and would rather lose the election than allow a deplorable into their tent. I suspect, from what little I know, that the stupid and arrogant, traits which have been hideously on display from the soundbites I’ve been exposed to from the convention, is the winning trait.

  43. Mitch

    When faced with two poor options which to choose? Choose neither! I don’t know why, but for some reason we too easily get stuck thinking in binaries in this country and it’s doing a lot of damage to the meaning people attach to the word ‘government’, and I find that very concerning. Vote Stein, vote your local dog catcher, vote whoever you know is actually still sane somehow, just please don’t feel obligated to vote R or D!

    1. Yves Smith

      As I said on another post:

      First, Jill Stein is not on the ballot in quite a few large-ish states, such as New York, Georgia, and Virginia, so your implicit hectoring of readers for not saying they will vote for Stein seems misplaced. https://monthlyreview.org/product/beyond-leviathan/

      Second, some people have been indoctrinated to believe that third parties in the act as spoilers. For Stein, it would be for Team D. So they would argue that your enthusiasm for Stein amounts to support for Trump, Mind you, I have always voted for third parties. and think this charge is overblown.

      Third, you seem to ignore the motivations of many of the readers here. Do you see pro-Trump tribalism? What you see is antipathy for the Democrats, and a refusal to support them when they squeal “Orange Man bad!” instead of presenting serious policies to help ordinary people, particularly after they stomped on and pissed all over Sanders twice.

      1. JonnyJames

        True, but Sanders rolled over like a good sheepdog and continues to serve his abusive masters. He, as always, tells us to vote for the D, genocide, corruption, lies notwithstanding.

        1. jonboinAR

          True, but Sanders rolled over like a good sheepdog and continues to serve his abusive masters. He, as always, tells us to vote for the D, genocide, corruption, lies notwithstanding.

          Yes, he did. I’m afraid I bought his schtick twice. I’ve been proud to say that I never fell for Obama’s BS, but I’m chagrined to say I fell for Sanders’. He was SO convincing in his false (I don’t know. It seems…) socialist sincerity. Now I just hold my nose and hold the Trump and the Harris bits of rot up to my nose, going “ewww! EWWW!” I’m thinking Stein, protest vote. Sh***!! I don’t know!!

            1. Saffa

              I guess for me, it’s not that it’s a shtick, but maybe that in the cold hard light of realpolitik, there is only so much that can be done within the constraints of current systems. It has been a bitter pill to swallow. I still think Bernie is sincere, and sets a human, and imperfect example of someone keeping at least some of his flame burning given the dire reality of the world. His chat with Theo Van Coke on YouTube recently was a great example of bridging work with working class indie voters.

              For those of us who dream of better, it will always feel like not enough, but in the context of a world that really is monstrously devouring itself, a little is still better than nothing. Even if it feels undignified, and maddening. Soon we may not have even the few rights we currently do and a moment of hope, a lone few persons being allowed to speak their truth, will be all the more poignant.

              Here in Cape Town the reality of deadly gangsterism has coloured my view of politics. I think it’s harsh and unrealistic to call an old man trying to do something against two of the most powerful and deadly gangs in the world (R&D of the USA) a betrayer and a coward. I get the emotion behind it, but I think it runs the danger of distorting the truth, and making decisions based on those distortions likely a bad idea. Just my 2cents

        2. Saffa

          He has stood up against the Genocide. If you follow his channel, and noted his non-attendance of the Bibi visit. The fact that he actively protests against the genocide while supporting the D should tell you clearly which of the two genocidal parties he considers the least existentially dangerous, and with a little bit of squeezing room for some light in the future, if there even is to be one at all.

          There is a reason for the saying that most of the time we don’t get to vote for the conditions we want to thrive in, but the conditions under which we are best able to protest/resist.

          Also, that voting is not and should not be our primary mode of political activism. It’s important but it’s just that, a vote for the conditions to resist under. The real work is in community, local, and for a politician Bernie is doing what I think is humanly possible. He endorses the D not because he agrees with all their policies, and he makes that clear surely. I don’t know about most readers here, but as an Afrikaner who valorises the small dissident community that existed amongst my own people during Apartheid, I can only imagine how tough it must be for him, a Jew, to openly speak against Israel. Yet he does that.
          That takes a helluva lot of guts.

          Anyone who has been on the left of things, who remembers the Anti-WTO Protests and the way Power asserted itself mercilessly, who has their heart broken on a near-daily basis for the last however many decades, will surely know that amidst overwhelming darkness, even the smallest light feels like life itself. And guarding against the bitterness-that-consumes an existential struggle to keep something alive for the future.

          I never thought the lesser-of-two-evils would ever be a literal decision with global implications. I finally do. Throwing people who have dedicated their lives to fight in the way they know how under the bus because the circumstances are less than ideal, is understandable from a trauma perspective, but does nothing to help the rest of us know and honour real world courage when we see it. He deserves better, at least the effort to appreciate and distinguish him as an individual and what he can do given the circumstances, versus just flattening him into a faceless datapoint of overall Democratic Party behaviour. From that perspective all courageous individual or tiny efforts become meaningless, because they will usually happen intertwined within a context of overwhelmingly evil mechanisms. Then we might as well all give up, and get into brutal survival politics, like reactionaries do.

  44. Tom67

    Hi all. Love NK and Yves and Strether though not Always agree. Am German but Partly grew Up in US. I Run Out door Business in Central Asia and am writing from there. I have many US clients. Good interesting people. 2016 watched Bernie being robbed of nomination. Had clients Switch to Trump. 2024 Things are much worse. Used to think of RFK as some crank. Now I think He is a tremendous man. Had a doc Client WHO explained Things to me I never thought possible. Medicine in Germany is Corporate and Money centered. But US is even worse. Trump might be Lots of Bad Things but He is No war monger and the world is such a shit place that exactly a new York blowhard and Deal maker is what we might need to fend of the worst. In Central Asia i have Had my fill of liberal embassy types or John Hopkins school of governance people WHO think the sun shines Out of the US s arse. I view the News that RFK got behind Trump as very good News.

      1. Anonted

        Poetic license, and a bit of cheek Lambert. I’m an artist. It’s no fault of your own; ‘tis a pageant. Please do not mistake my yelling at clouds for a lack of appreciation.

    2. chris

      You won’t have to wait long if the cabal that installed Kamala has anything to say about it. I’m sure they’re already hanging curtains in the war room they’ve built for WWIII.

  46. JonnyJames

    Sorry to be so typically irreverent but RFK Jr. is just another amoral, mendacious scumbag. Ds this, Rs that. Why waste our time on this charade? We all know that elections are merely PR stunts, but few will admit it, many WANT to believe – it is the “religion civile” after all. It must be easier to remain in denial, than admit the ugly truth. People seem to be mesmerized and obsessed with the stage-managed spectacle.. Millions will “hope” that something will change, but it only gets worse. (insanity?)

    So, if you vote for the R brand, or the D brand, you vote for Genocide. There’s a sucker born every minute.

    1. jobs

      Bravo!

      A candidate supporting genocide is simply not a reason not to vote for him or her for a depressingly large number of USians.

  47. Gramsci was Right [left actually]

    Lambert!
    How can you possibly miss the common denominator in all this hogwash? Bobby Jr. revealed himself as a fraud when he stated “there is a genocide in the middle east, but it is Jews and Christians, NOT Palestinians” that are being slaughtered. There’s one thread that runs through OrangeWad & the Bear Smuggler’s antics; Miriam Adelson. Both are happy to pad their pockets with her cash, and say whatever they’re told…. “uhm, yeah, I’m in it for the children!” The genocide Project continues unabated, regardless of which wing of the UniParty prevails.
    Please.

  48. Telee

    While I am on board with the warranted criticism of the democratic party and the capitalist system, I don’t see how electing Trump to the presidency is the solution. This stance makes no sense to me.

    1. Yves Smith

      I suggest you read more carefully. This is not a “stance” and I take umbrage at you falsely depicting this site as having one. Lambert CLEARLY said above “Sophie’s Choice.” Both options are evil.

      If you again smear us, your comments will no longer be posted.

      1. Telee

        I was referring to statements made in the comments, not the site. my bad. Of course NC is not supporting Trump. I’m definitely not smearing the site. There were plenty of comments by readers who declared their support for Trump based on their displeasure of the democratic party, including IM Doc. I’ve been misunderstood before and reprimanded. In addition, many comments I’ve made have not been printed although factually correct. I promise not to make any more comments on your site. I’m done. Still appreciate the articles. Goodbye.

        1. Yves Smith

          I am sorry you are leaving but your comment was made as a stand-alone, not in response to other comments, and therefore was a comment on the article and not other comments. It therefore came off as piling on in light of some other comments above. There was no other way to read your remark.

          This sort of thing may have led to other comments not being freed, that you placed them so they were statements about the article and not remarks made by the commentariat. We also have screens that send some comments directly to Trash and we are not as regular about checking Trash and hoisting comments that should not have wound up there as we ought to be.

          In general, it’s pretty depressing to see Lambert attempt technical analysis, which is key to understanding where various races are going, and have some readers view that as advocacy.

        2. Saffa

          This seems to be a common misunderstanding. I too experience many of the comments sometimes as skewing generally toward a certain side. And it only feels natural to write a comment generally addressing that. But then it comes across as a comment directly criticising the OP, which draws unnecessary but also justified ire from OP. Pity. Hopefully this can be resolved, otherwise comments that go against the general grain of the much respected commentariat will keep decreasing, which would skew it even further.

  49. jonboinAR

    After it all, I keep forgetting that Trump ended the nuclear deal with Iran and that he seems to want to go to war with them to keep/put them in in their place, as/per, (it seems, I don’t know , but it seems) instructions from Israel. And to think, back in the old days, Ronald Reagan was able to powerfully coerce Israel to toe his line in Lebanon. Holllyyyy schnikes, these are both horrible candidates for president! Lord, we’re in an awful way!

  51. chris

    A bit of anecdata from the field. Talking to my friends and family who also live in the DMV/NoVa district, I’ve observed two things:

    1.) They appear to be legitimately terrified of a second Trump administration. I don’t understand why as the last time showed he’d be a standard republican in most ways. But there you have it. I’ve risked probing a few times and they tend to mumble “Project 2025 something something”. They were almost violent in their beliefs that Ol’Joe didn’t have Parkinson’s or some other debilitating condition. So this appears to be an outgrowth of some serious cognitive dissonance.

    2.) They are sincerely thrilled about the Kamala coronation. When I’ve asked them why, I think it comes down to feeling like they had a lot of say in this outcome because they did not want to vote for Biden and now do not have to. They genuinely do not care that there was no initial primary and that Kamala was installed. They get to vote for a woman who’s under 70 years old. They’re happy about that. Absent any policy discussions, they are happy enough with just that.

    RFK Jr. was a creation of the double hate we had going into the election season. Now that people no longer hate the Team Blue candidate his support collapsed. But if I have the option, I will vote for him so that the party duopoly is one step closer to death. It’s the best shot we have of breaking it up.

    1. lambert strether

      > 1.) They appear to be legitimately terrified of a second Trump administration. I don’t understand why as the last time showed he’d be a standard republican in most ways.

      I’ve urged that the PMC, the Democrat base, achieved class consciousness in 2016 as a result of Clinton’s/loss and Trump’s victory; they could not accept their authority (their social and symbolic capital) being rejected. Hence fury, rage, despair, hate, etc.

      Speculating freely, we might think of Trump’s victory as a sort of birth trauma for the PMC; he even invades their dreams! I don’t think this trauma will go away anytime soon; and it was immediately reinforced by RussiaGate, producing embubblement as hard and spherical as, well, a coconut. Not all members of the PMC are embubbled, of course, but those who are exceptional not hegemonic.

      Where to go with this I am not sure, but it does make the Democrats a hard nut to crack.

      1. chris

        I think the problem will be solved by numbers. As Yves sometimes says, “There are not very many of the Shing.” Very soon the policies of the in class that is so in control of the uniparty will displace previously well paid and well thought of people. There is no faster way to revolution than creating a population of dispossessed and disenfranchised people. That’s how I think this ends. When AI, immigration, automation, and nepotism combine to make an even more corrupt soup than the mess we’re in now, you’ll see a lot of pissed off former middle managers take to the streets.

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